Wolf Eyes – Human Animal CD (Rare / Used, NM)

After a year of non-stop touring in support of 2004’s Burned Mind, Wolf Eyes were ready; seasoned to travel through horrible new areas of sound. During one four-week period at the dawn of ‘06, they laid down the ideas that would shape the new album in their studio, the Terror Tank. This new slab is the first with Mike Connelly (of Hair Police and the Gods of Tundra label) replacing Aaron Dilloway. Though he no longer tours with the band, Dilloway remains involved and helped to mix the new record with BMG (who also did the deed on Burned Mind).These songs are rotten with metal, reeds, consciousness-erasing islands of black doom; bass-heavy rippers, late-night free-terror jams, afflicted dog-hearts, underwater crabs: pure mayhem. The new double bass attack is showcased on “Human Animal” and “Rusted Mange” with scraping strings and a full terror-shriek workout re-organized by Dilloway. New directions are countered by “Rationed Rot,” which revisits the eerie Throbbing Gristle-esque vocal deployment that dates from Wolf Eyes’ Dread LP. The album also features the band’s first ever cover song: a dead-on rendering of No Fucker’s rotten hXc anthem, “Noise Not Music.”
**Extra special staff pick.** Highly recomended listening! This is my personal favourite Wolf Eyes record. A blind purchase as a teenager sometime in the late noughts which introduced me to Detroit noise and noise not music more broadly.