Prurient – The Black Post Society (Black Spring) 2008
I’ve become increasingly obsessed by Prurient and in a matter of a couple of weeks now own way too many of his records. When I’ve read about his records in the past the reviewers always seem to be a bit snippy. Particularly the Wire. For the most part his back catalogue seems to be pure harsh noise excursions with little light – massive walls of blackened noise. In the past couple of years the general consensus seems to be that he has turned it down a notch and allowed actual music to makes appearances on his records. I think the shippiness comes frmo the melodrama of Prurient’s records which is always dialled all the way up to 10. Does he take himself far too seriously? Probably – but whatever, it works for me.
The first Prurient record I bought, Cocaine Death, blew me away and right after I digested that I located a copy of this, probably his most recent easy to track down record. It’s a far different beast to Cocaine Death in that it is less rhythm happy and more a mood piece (thanks Azzief). In fact I’d go so far as to say that this approaches dark ambient (at times) territory. Although you wouldn’t know it if the opener is anything to go by. Black Post Society starts with the most sublime Suicide style risk before morphing into a black electronic head fuck. Things settle down on the next few tracks. I read one review which commented that this record is oppressively depressing. I didn’t get that at all. In fact I think that Black Post Society has a tiny bit of hope peeping out from the darkness. In fact some of the tracks here are staggeringly beautiful, putting to one side Prurient’s penchant for a black metal growl and distorted spoken word. I’ve been flogging this one to death and it really is worthwhile tracking down. Stylistically, it’s black metal, noise, power electronics, spoken word, dark ambient and drone all mixed into one – and at the moment that suits me fine.
Ducks Battle Satan 
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