A brand new Bastard Noise release that comes right on the heels of the awesome new BN album Rogue Astronaut that we had as our featured release last week, The Immortals features two new track from the mighty Skull that were recorded roughly around the same time as their album, and two tracks from a band called Malachi from Wisconsin. Might seem like an odd pairing at first, as Malachi plays a brand of burly, epic crustcore a la Tragedy/Skitsystem and that sort of D-beat driven thrash, but as the two bands alternate their tracks, this album does turn into something more like a collaboration than just yer run of the mill split CD.

The first and third songs are from Malachi, who has former members of What Happens Next, Artimus Pyle, and High On Crime, and their sound is a mix of the thunderous crusty thrash of Artimus Pyle, stretches of somber cello, and lumbering doom riffs, alternating between high speed D-beat driven power and grim doomy plod and spare chamber music ambience. The sound is grim and apocalyptic, opening with the morose, cello-laced doomcrust of "Pain Trials" and later switching into "Five", an instrumental piece that starts with just a dark guitar riff/arpeggio playing a sort of gloomy dustbowl melody over and over, reminding me a little of, um, 5ive...or maybe Old Man Gloom, until the full band crashes in and the song turns thunderous and heavy, a huge majestic riff rising up over tumbling tribal drums, those sorrowful cellos weeping in the background, the song eventually collapsing into a wash of crushing amp rumble and droning feedback that extends out for several minutes.

The Bastard Noise tracks are second and fourth and tie the album together, starting with the chittering metal-insect swarms and humid drones that appear at the beginning of "Post Conflict Dream" that move into deep isolationist drones and menacing Lustmord territory, vast swathes of subterranean rumble and electrical hum streaked by high-end whine and softly shifting clouds of orchestral string and scattered percussion, eventually joined by ethereal male singing and haunting female vocals from Leila Rauf (who also plays in Amber Asylum and Saros) that form into strange harmonies, the same sort that made Rogue Astronaut sound so eerie and otherworldly and unlike the Bastard Noise of old. The last track "Elemental Decay" is also in this droneological mode, with it's metallic dronescapes stretching across vast cosmic distance, laced with subharmonic pulses, tidal surges of hissing white noise, ethereal male and female vocals intertwining in ghostly descending melodies, orchestral strings rising and falling, squealing almost sax-like tones, deep pounding percussive blasts echoing in the distance, and lush metallic shimmer swirling in between the singing voices and electronics. Might be what Kayo Dot would sound like if they went totally electronic, their eerie dark prog rendered into spacious industrial dronedrift and cavernous machine rumblings. This material is much more restrained and atmospheric than the more brutal sections of Rogue Astronaut, but fans of Bastard Noise's new sound will still find this an essential listen.

Nicely packaged in a six panel gatefold sleeve printed by Thumbprint Press and illustrated with small images of insectile robots. Limited edition of 1000 copies.