I'm going to go right ahead and put this on the list for "Heaviest Noise Multi-Disc Set" of the year. I had heard that this project was in the works a while back, but I didn't realize how extensive and ambitious this set was going to be until I picked up my own copy of it to check out. Packaged in a custom-made die-cut package that opens up into ten panels, with the discs held in individual pockets on each of the panels (and the fifth disc held inside of a pocket in the center of the box), this amazing package unfolds to reveal the trademark Skull grinning at you from the core of the case, and each of the panels features lyrics and other information for each disc. The case is printed with a combination of spot-gloss and matte inks to create a mix of black-on-black artwork and dark grey print - it looks incredible, and obviously a lot of work and care went into the construction of this. Limited to 720 copies, Our Earth's Blood IV is the most massive Bastard Noise release yet, a five-disc mega-album that is almost entirely made up of collaborations with other noise groups, which gives you a diverse mix of sounds and styles that includes some really surprising stuff that you probably wouldn't expect to heard on a Bastard Noise album.

Check out the lineup of guest artists that are involved with this: Merzbow, Government Alpha, Kelly Churko, Cristian Bass, Clew Of Theseus, Oblong Box, P.W.E., Jay Randall (Agoraphobic Nosebleed), Leila Rauf (also of Amber Asylum), doom metallers Volition, Sickness, Emesis, Surrounded, Andorkappen, Azoikum, Nyarlathotep, Peacemaker (the experimental noise project from Rich Hoak of Brutal Truth/Total Fucking Destruction), Defektro, Golem Gross, TN666 (which features members of Seven Minutes Of Nausea), and Rotten Piece. Jesus! And if you noticed, there's some names in there that aren't "noise" groups, which is where things get really interesting. A big chunk of the tracks on Our Earth's Blood IV feature Bastard Noise venturing into the realms of extreme doom metal, ambient metallic drone, and abstract avant-rock for some of the heaviest BN jams that you've ever heard, but noise freaks shouldn't fret; there's plenty of classic caveman electronics and harsh noise mayhem on here too, and altogether you get almost five hours of Bastard Noise in all of it's various guises, and it's one hell of a crushing noise assault!

The first disc opens with a large-scale collaboration between Bastard Noise, Japanese noisician Government Alpha, Kelly Churko and P.W.E. called

"Earthmaster", a fearsome dronescape made up of rumbling bass tones, high-pitched sinewaves that fluctuate slightly in pitch, the muted rumbling of motors, and a varied vocal attack that switches back and forth between Wood's deep excoriating roar and the freaked out upper-register shrieks. Towards the end, the track gets quite noisy and chaotic, but mostly this is one of the more ambient tracks on the disc. That can't be said for "A Treatise Of Extinction", the nearly ten minute jam that follows, which has BN teamed up with death metal drummer Christian Bass (Night In Gales / Deadsoil) and harsh noise artist Clew Of Theseus for some super intense industrial improv; this is one of the wildest tracks in the collection, a sprawling freeform workout that pits brutal oscillator spew and flesh-piercing feedback tones against metallic sheets of electronic drone and bombastic electronic stabs while Bass hammers his drums into extremely angular percussive shapes. The first half sounds like a less blackened, more glitched out Khylst, with hideous snarls and shrieks infesting the spaces between the drum strikes; after a brief passage of glimmering ambient drones, the drums re-emerge with a heavy, motorized 4/4 beat that ticks it's

way through a mist of minute laser beams and fractal noise until the vocals and drums are ultimately smothered by thick slabs of industrial hum at the end. Oblong Box and BN wander through long stretches of emptiness and minimal industrial whir and buzz floating beneath the starless sky of "Christ Would Cry", and the BN/P.W.E.jam "T.O.T.F.K.A.C." shoots razorblades of test-tone fuckery, the agonized screams of a witch impaled on spikes, swells of deep feedback, and violent fx-pedal freakout through your skull. But the last track is the most surprising: "Venom Bath" has BN, P.W.E. and Jay Randall (the frontman from Agoraphobic Nosebleed, natch) unfurling endless metallic drones, soft smears of electronic fuzz, and lush cosmic drift for almost half an hour, lacing their eerie industrial dronescape with echoing sonar pings, blurts of squelchy noise, brief blasts of garbled feedback, and fronted by a multi-vocal attack; things get a little heavy later on, as the vocals suddenly turn death metal deep and a massive glacial throb appears far beneath all of the layers of sound, but the track never gets completely out of control until the very end, when the effects and noise are suddenly cranked and they soar away in a mangled mass of screaming, raging phaser blasts and brutal analogue squelch.

Disc two opens with "An Argument", one of the few tracks to not feature an outside collaborator working with Bastard Noise; it's one of their tradermark space-troniks freakouts, with wild oscillator chaos streaking through black space and cold ambience stretching out into infinity. But the next track is one of the mosy unique on this collection, and easily the heaviest: "Pathogen" is collaboration between Bastard Noise and Brit doomsters Volition (whose album on Total Rust from last year got big raves around here), starting out with a few minutes of abstract electronics and squealing effects before lurching into crushing doom metal. Massive grinding riffage and pummeling slow-mo drums are wed to Wood's monstrous vocals and tons of freaked-out electronic noise, Hawkwind-esque effects and howling feedback, stretching out for almost ten minutes, a devestating industrial space-doom epic. "We Are The Vermin" combines harsh noise, abrasive metalscrape and crashing cymbals from Sickness that are fused to BN's brutal powersquelch, and "Sunless Hell" is a BN/Emesis collab of pure harsh noise frequency abuse and rumbling bass levels swarming with galactic locust buzz and hellish power electronics. The Skull is again at it alone for "Rushing Into Deceit", a purely electronic doomscape of synthetic horns, distant klaxons and black interstellar drift; and the last track is a team-up between BN, Andorkappen and Surrounded for the throbbing motorized dronescapes, disembodied death metal roars and sinister industrial ambience of "From The Beasts Of Fraud".

Disc number three opens with another epic track, the fourteen minute "Global Shop Of Horrors" that has Bastard Noise collaborating with Nyarlathotep and Azoikum for a massive blowout of deep-space noise, with theremin-like sounds from old sci-fi movie music mixing with crystalline electronic tones, crushing overmodulated bass and rib-rattling bottom-end throb, distorted screams and Wood's guttural bellowing vocals, and huge waves of black cosmic whoosh. "Warnumb" has BN teaming with Government Alpha and Oblong Box for a more subdued cosmic dronescape formed from pulses of thick static, ominous droning

synthesizers, scraping metal, and swells of blissed out ambience; for the first six minutes or so, it's all gorgeously drifty dark ambience, until the insanely guttural, almost death metal-like spoken word vocals appear. Peacemaker (the noise project of Rich Hoak from Brutal Truth/Total Fucking Destruction) joins the Skull for the fifteen-minute plus "Distant Burial Grounds", which moves into even heavier regions; vast molten slabs of detuned ultra-heavy ambient sludge drift through distant nebula, surrounded by celestial skree and massive fluttering bass, shrieking vocals, bursts of violent oscillator noise, buried kosmiche synthesizer drones, orchestral strings, and the distant thunder of kettledrums that rattle the earth and turn this into something that sounds a whole lot more like some sort of super abstract and blackened psychedelic doom/kraut/metal than "noise". "Satellite War" has Clew Of Theseus contributing extreme harsh noise and treble-soaked feedback to a slowly churning miasma of caveman space troniks as freaked out high pitched screams swoop through clouds of reverb, and the last track "Inner Hostage" is a frozen and frightening sprawl of endless dark ambience, deep metallic whir, vomitous blackened witch-snarls, dreamy female vocals electronically processed into lush layered sheets of sound, and keening high end tones, one of the most terrifying tracks that I've ever heard from Bastard Noise.

On disc four, we're first treated to the epic blast-a-thon of "War Loving God", a thick, frenzied maelstrom of chirping feedback, harsh distortion, ultra-violent low-end, stretches of mechanical clockwork ticking and psychotic chipmunk screams, crashing metal junk, incredibly loud and heavy chunks of distorted amp noise, malfunctioning spaceship sounds, huge slabs of abrasive industrial grind, and smoldering electronic buzz that will put your teeth on edge. "Skeletal Human Bacon Hangers" is only slightly less caustic, another large group collab that has Kelly Churko, Government Alpha, Oblong Box, Golem Gross, Culpis, TN666 (the noise project from Matthias Weigand of Seven Minutes Of Nausea), and Rotten Piece all jamming with BN on a furious blast of scorching electronics, a cappela death metal, nightmarish sampler mayhem, and thick clouds of mechanical buzz and hiss and whir. "Blue Green Sorrow" features Clew Of Theseus, P.W.E. and BN firing off endless streams of chirping electronics, pounding sheet-metal reverberations run through psychedelic effects, and steel-plated drones, and "Killing Friends" is an awesome slab of apocalyptic darkness from Merzbow and BN that combines putrid vomiting vocals, tortured screams, vast orchestral drones, huge waves of lush industrial ambience, harsh corrosive noise, grinding buzzsaw distortion, chopped-up analogue tones and blurts of crushing low-end.

The fifth and final disc keeps it coming: BN and Sickness team up for the dark ambience, minimal percussive rhythms, shrill feedback paintings and hard-drive revolt of "Denial Delusions", and "A Mother's Tears (Backwards Species)" unleashes ten minutes of punishing low-end squelch, distorted pedal

flutter, bestial roars, shuffling underwater rhythms and crushing cyborg dub from BN and Guilty Connector. There's yet another BN / Clew Of Theseus jam called "Anomic Machination" which blends together deep isolationist drone, death metal roars tumbling through an infinite wormhole, filigreed streaks of metallic feedback, and some massive muted jet-engine rumble, and the last track "G.R.N." wraps the boxset up with another vicious locust noise assault, as Bizarre Uproar and Rick Gribenas sling feedback and slowly circling clots of high-end noise against the bassy analogue rumble of BN's equipment.

Man, this has to be one of the most extensive and content-loaded noise releases of the year. I mean, c'mon...five discs of Bastard Noise? It's going to take you a while to fully absorb all of this, and the amazing variety of artists that have teamed up with BN for this release keeps the collection from ever getting redundant. Of course, you've gotta be a pretty big fan of Bastard Noise's brand of analague electronic brutality to get into this - this is hardly the place for a BN neophyte to start - but for serious fans of the Skull, this is an essential addition to your collection.