FUNNEL OF HATE

Looking back on it, it's pretty goddamn amazing the risks record labels were willing to take in the nineties, and few if any labels took more risks than Release Entertainment, the experimental/noise sub-label of Relapse Records.  The label's tagline was "Release Your Mind" and from the ear-bleeding noise assaults of Merzbow and Masonna to the deeply disturbed death industrial of Brighter Death Now and Atrax Morgue, it was pretty obvious that this wasn't just a clever catchphrase.  To endure the ultra-harsh sounds Release was doling out required an open mind and then some.

Indeed, Release Entertainment put out some of the most mind-bending/destroying albums of the nineties, but the most bat-shit insane thing they ever pressed onto disc might just be Haters' Drunk on Decay. Released upon a largely unsuspecting CD-buying public back in 1997, the hype sticker for this one pretty much says it all in terms of what you're getting.

"All sounds on this CD were produced from a suspended, amplified funnel dragging and eroding on rotating sandpaper.  Erosion being the only way a solid object can truly penetrate the void."

But what the fuck does an amplified funnel dragging on sandpaper sound like?  The opening track "Drunk on Decay #3," lulls you into a false sense of security by being surprisingly easy on the ears.  The track hums along steadily for a little over sixteen minutes with not much happening in terms of dynamics, a hypnotic droning that could've just as easily come from a kitchen appliance.  It's rather soothing, which is likely by design in order to make the sonic maelstrom of the following tracks that much more jarring and abrasive.

Whereas the first track is largely a case of no alarms and no surprises, "Drunk on Decay #4" comes screaming to life with tumultuous waves of distortion and spikey feedback.  This track has much more in common with the violent harshness of the aforementioned Merzbow and Masonna, as well as fellow American noise-makers such as Namanax and Bastard Noise.  "Drunk on Decay #3" feels like a warm-up, but with "Drunk on Decay #4" we're actually starting to penetrate the void; the track threatens to punch a hole in your brain and suck you into the darkest depths of inner space.  The album hits its stride here with a dynamic, chaotic approach to noise and doesn't let up for the next forty-plus minutes.

With "Drunk on Decay #5" it sounds and feels as if total penetration of the void is now complete and we've made it to the other side, set adrift on an endless sea of static.  This track is not as unmoving as "Drunk on Decay #3, nor is it as dynamic as "Drunk on Decay #4;" instead it occupies a sweet spot between those two extremes.  There is an interesting call and response between the left and right channels that really begins to take shape just before the six minute and thirty second mark, and it'll have you questioning whether there is some method to Haters' madness, or if your ears are fucking with you, which is something that all noise artists should aspire to.  It is the longest and best track here, as it feels like Haters have mastered the chaos without fully reining it in.

Drunk on Decay is a compelling piece of sound art and one of the key releases in the Release Entertainment catalog.  It might not be as infamous as Venereology or Inner Mind Mystique, but it can certainly hang with those classic albums in terms of both harshness and radical approach.  These days it's pretty difficult to find on CD, but fortunately Haters main man GX Jupitter-Larsen maintains an extensive Bandcamp page where it can be streamed for free or downloaded for a measly three bucks, so grab your earbuds, "Release Your Mind" and get ready for a one-way trip down the Funnel of Hate.