Korperschwache - Evil Walks
Crucial Blast
Experimental/Noise/Doom/Drone
8 songs (60 minutes)
Release year: 0
Reviewed by Brian

There are records that, upon hearing them, you can explain to a friend how they sound, or who the band resembles, or what setting is the best to hear the thing for the first time. There are others that provide more of a challenge, and while you might be able to make loose associations to help you describe the experience, you’re left at kind of a loss. Then there are records such as Korperschwache’s Evil Walks that’ll leave you at a total loss. No words can describe this thing, and no experience can be properly conveyed because it’s a record you have to hear for yourself. Chances are everyone’s experience will be radically different.

After assorted other releases over the years, this is the first Korperschwache album being offered up by Crucial Blast, itself a label that releases music that can’t easily be grasped or absorbed. This album requires an open mind. A fully open mind. There is no other records and no other band that sound quite like this, and there are many moments on this album that are downright disturbing. If you need a really, really loose idea of what the band sounds like, here are some adjectives: experimental, doomy, provoking, confrontational, droning, horrific.

Korperschwache is loosely associated with Skullflower, themselves a pretty bizarre, heady, out-there kind of band that practically provides an active definition for the word niche. Leader/visionary RKF experiments with sounds, lays in heavy drum machine and samples, and often conjures a sort of tribal trance sound that can lull you into concentration but just as easily jar you awake with something you don’t expect. Opener There Is a Certain Smell Attractive to Wolves begins with a woman recounting a nightmare of being violently pursued, and while it could be chalked up by some as cheesy, B-movie horror, it sure doesn’t feel that way. Plus, once the music starts and the ghoulish vocals combined with rumbling noise make your speakers shake, chances are you’ll be at full attention.

But that’s only the start. The Rearing Elephant seems to indicate calm has swept over, with its simple beat, buzzing indie rock-style melody, and less-evasive darkness, but that leads you right into 11-minute instrumental City of Lost Girls, a piece about Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, stitched together by news clips about the drug-rich area. In fact, the song title (based on the nickname the town has so morbidly achieved) tells you all you need to know, but it’s impossible to stop listening, no matter how repulsed you may be. Burning Man seems to be poking at you and your fears with a devious smirk, and the closing title cut hardly lets you down easily, as the noise and damage spirals out of control, eventually burning out. This summary probably tells you very little about how this sounds. Yep. Sorry. It’s really difficult to describe, and as said, it’s something you just have to experience for yourself. But be warned: This is not for the weak at heart or for anyone prone to nightmares. This will only contribute to that, and Korperschwache shouldn’t be held responsible if you explore anyway and find yourself more scarred for it.

Killing Songs :
City of Lost Girls, There Is a Certain Smell Attractive to Wolves
Brian quoted 85 / 100
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