Antivalium - False Flags.

Album: False Flags

Artist: AntiValium

Label: Self-released

Catalogue no: N/A

Tracklist:

     1.      Lie

     2.      I Remember

     3.      For What

     4.      Icon

     5.      Shot After Shot

     6.      Coming to Dinner

     7.      In this Together

     8.      Pass the Stranger

What do you get when you put two members of KnifeLadder in a room with some noise-making electronics, set up a tape-machine somewhere, tell them to spontaneously improvise, and see what comes out at the other end? You get AntiValium, aka Hunter Barr and Andrew Trail, who produce an unholy collision of jerky rhythms, grating drones, effects, and noisy mayhem, a kind of melding of disjointed, unconnected beats with acidic death industrial aesthetics. Stand in awe of this gargantuan, oil-smeared beast with acid for blood coursing through its veins, furnace fires in its belly, and lethally-sharp scythes for hands.

‘Lie’ begins with a child’s voice singing a simple song, replaced by a rasping oscillation accompanied by a buzz, the machine self-starting and booting-up a program of malefic intent and violence. ‘I Remember’ jerks in on a spasticated rhythm, while grinding, scraping, scratching defilements mutilate and butcher flesh and bone in the background. Anguished, distorted vocals spew spite, rage, and disappointment in a torrential deluge. Crashing the bloody party is ‘For What’, a heavyweight slab of industrial percussive electronics, the kind that’s played at a pre-Armageddon night at the local dance-hall, a platform for agitation and fomenting revolution. Inciting further disturbance and unrest is ‘Icon’, a broken, twisting rhythm a comrade-in-arms of the concrete and steel percussive elements, a soapbox for more anger-filled vocals shouted through a loudhailer. This is the fulcrum, the pivot point at which it either tips into resistance or supine acquiescence. The momentum building here is undeniable, and all it would take would be a small spark to detonate it into explosive action…

‘Shot After Shot’ is the inevitable response from those who have the most to lose – the authorities and the rulers. Sweeping drones supported by a strident beat, with voices mixed in, portray a massed battalion of the serried faceless and emotionless forces of oppression, awaiting the signal to begin suppression and decimation.

The pace lets up in ‘Coming to Dinner’, a stalemate perhaps while forces regather and recuperate, the calm before the storm constituting a brief respite before the next explosion of anger instigates more bloodshed. This is almost death ambient, more about atmosphere and setting a scene rather than relentless assault and attack; a menacing, loping behemoth, crushing and trampling, a harbinger of ruin and catastrophe. ‘In this Together’ (a now-hollow sounding phrase coined by a certain political party here in the UK) comes the closest to being a song on this album, driven by a pounding bassline and replete with ‘tuneful’ vocals. This is almost a victory anthem, although it’s still informed by dark ambient and noise aesthetics with a little bit of martial industrial thrown in for some seasoning.

‘Pass the Stranger’ is the most reminiscent of old-school industrial to me, pounding drums belting out a tribalistic/martial beat, blasting fuzzed-out guitar, and treated vocal line. This, if I had to name one at all, is perhaps my favourite here, as it takes me back in some weird manner to way back when to the time I first got into industrial. There’s such a mixture here: the martial, the industrial, the punk, and the noise freakouts that pretty much summed up my early encounters with the scene.

One of the most pleasing aspects of False Flags is that it sustains its intensity for the whole duration of the album – it sounds as if AntiValium had a lot to get off its chests and it all pours, nay spews, out in a flood of acidity and acrimony. I can’t vouch for Messrs. Barr and Trail’s inspirations, but whatever they are I took a great deal away from this as it matched my feelings about the current political and social situation. Everything appeared to align in that regard. I couldn’t shake the feeling that AntiValium was just concretising into sound what I’ve been feeling. On that score alone, it’s a blinder of an album, distilling a witches’ brew of anger, dissatisfaction, resentment, and ill-feeling into eight tracks over nearly 50 minutes. This deserves to be blasted out loudly and proudly.

Available for preorder now (out on October 12^th 2019) as a limited edition CD and a digital download:

https://antivalium.bandcamp.com/

Pymon Marshall 2019.

Enemy of Pigs launch night.

S.T.A.B. Electronics, Iron Fist of the Sun, Antivalium, Active Denial. The Castle, London, Saturday 31^st March.

I went to this gig alone, upon 10 minutes of my arrival I’d met Phil from W.I.P., Lee from Iron Fist of the Sun, Keith from S.T.A.B. both guys from Active Denial and Winston from Shift/Unrest. It was great to meet the faces behind the projects that I love. The occasion was S.T.A.B.s first live gig in 3 years to celebrate the release of Enemy of Pigs on Unrest Productions, I’m playing it now on my turntable.

I’ve reviewed both Active Denial tapes in the past and I was keen to see them in a live context. I believe they haven’t played a lot of live gigs prior to this. The set up was simple vocals, keyboard and four Walkman portable players that all into a mixer.  Adam Apple screamed and shouted into the mic, got right into people’s faces throughout their set. Sometimes both Apple and Bucorvus Leadbeater did vocals together, the noises were primitive like those used on their recordings. For a moment I felt it waned briefly, but sudden a strobe pointed at the audience and a resurgence of rage pushed things up another few notches. I thought this was a great performance that set the bar high for the evening, the rage seemed endless: The Summer of Hate was back with a vengeance.

Antivalium came dressed in suits and masks, their stage presence and image were strong. Their brand of synth dominated industrial noise with beats was good and it shifted a lot in sound. At times it was hard not to dance when they became more animated as beats took prominence. There was an air of deep broodiness throughout an impressive set that really stood out - the excellent taste in vintage microphones certainly helped this. Their sound and intensity were different to the other acts and stood out most as the odd act out, still great and this seemed to allow the differences between all acts to shine through. When researching after, I found out they were both in KnifeLadder with the late John Murphy as well as Black Light Ascension which is impressive, but Antivalium stands as a strong project, this was demonstrated by their performance - I look forward to investigating their work more.

The gig did have an air of sadness as it was to be the last performance from Iron Fist of the Sun. I love this project as I reviewed a lot of his work over the years and have most of the releases. This is a top tier project of present day that I know can deliver live and on record. As he began it was crisp, concise and everything was delivered with precision. He shouted with his back to the audience at the rear wall of the venue or sideways to the audience and it was effective as he became angrier and the sounds intensified massively. The way the vocals weren’t as in the faces of the audience as the other acts seemed to allow for it to really project outwards at the audience. The sound and set up he had was complex and wouldn’t have worked so well in less competent hands, he then flicked a switch and the familiar, powerful death drones of Smile Like Sword kicked in to cheers and shouts. The vocals were great, he shouted and screamed and had some effect that doubled the vocals up when it was used – amazing wasn’t enough to describe it. His set became choppy, chaotic and noisier at the after Smile Like Sword and made for an effective contrast that died out to an end to be greeted by huge applause and enthusiasm from the audience. I’d only ever seen IFotS live once this was even better than that. To end on such a high with a consistently solid, evolving body of work is noble. However, my personal view is the integrity of the project would have kept it great for a long time to come, but greatness is as greatness does.

The night seemed like a series of championship fights and S.T.A.B. continued to up the levels of intensity with a savage, manic performance. He was continually right in our faces shouting, the mic seemed to die out at one point, and I am not shitting you, it made no difference to the vocal levels at all, he continued to yell over the electronics until the mic worked again - vocally S.T.A.B. continues to be next level. His personal, nasty take on Death Industrial was complimented by videos of violent gang fights and sadomasochistic penis abuse. The images of a guy continually being ball punched by a Dominatrix made me hold my balls in protective fear whilst S.T.A.B. seemed to continually grab his balls hard to raise the pitch of his vocals. The set was mostly newer material as I am recognising a lot of it as I play my copy of the excellent Enemy of Pigs; there was a lot of really, muddy, murky noise that was dominated by the louder than loud vocals, the level of performance used to work the vocals from the background to the forefront repeatedly was something else. Height wise he was huge, which amplified his stage presence, he was all over the stage in the audience’s faces, yelling and gesturing; the intensity and menace never let up for a minute. I’ve been listening to the S.T.A.B. cds I have a lot over the last 6 months since discovering the project, this live performance was even better than I imagined it would be and the new album ups the ante.

Four solid performances made for an excellent night.

Choppy Noodles 2019

Unrest Productions