Both of the new discs that just came in from The Institute Of Organic Conversations (the micro-label operated by James Keeler of Wilt/Hedorah) exist in the same sphere of punishing industrial skum-sludge; Hedorah's latest, the three-track Flower cdr that's reviewed on this week's list, is a continuation of Keeler's monolithic noise-doom, roaring glacial mecha-sludge doused in holocaustal levels of harsh noise. On the other hand, Amputation Theory's Scum is a complete clusterfuck of distorto-sludge violence and spastic noisecore that's way more antisocial and damaged, though it totally fits in with the kind of putrid heaviness that Keeler and company have been working with as of late.

Dunno where this band is from or who's behind it, all I've found online is that it's apparently one guy by the name of Jimmy Rexroad who creates all of this noise. Scum is one of the few things that the project has put out so far, apparently released in a microscopic edition of 25 copies, but anyone into seriously demented and noise-damaged heaviness will flip out over this disc. Eleven tracks, all soaked in nihilist dread and seriously negatory vibes, a mix of vicious harsh noise, retarded Brainbombs-like sludge rock, massive Swans-style industrial peercussive pound, hyperfast drum-machine noisecore...tracks like "Arsonist" and "Down With The Rich" bury massive blackened doom metal riffs underneath impossibly heavy mountains of Incapacitants-style noise, but then "Girls In Love" is a surreal sound collage of murky shortwave dance-pop, film samples, melted jazz horns, clouds of spacious room ambience, weird chuckling voices, blasts of fleshrending black noise, and other random sounds. Then there's tracks like "Crystals" and "Mandance" that remind me of the blown-out garage sludge of Drunkdriver and Brainbombs, only with RIDICULOUS amounts of harsh noise and distortion and feedblack dumped all over the songs, almost obliterating the sloppy riffs and neanderthal drumming with a hellstorm of ear-scraping skree. This shit is VERY intense.

Comes in a handmade black and white wallet sleeve.