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CABAL  Issue 1  MAGAZINE + CASSETTE   (Cathartic Process)   10.98
Issue 1 IS CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE FOR ORDER

High contrast images of depravity, eschatological Rorschachs and severe mutation...just about everything that I want to see in an underground art rag. That and more is present in the inaugural issue of Cabal, a new publication from the industrial label Cathartic Process that's hopefully going to be coming out on a regular basis. The first issue is packed with forty-four perfect-bound pages full of gruesome photo collages, nihilistic visions, images of cycloptic children, sexual depravity, bondage, psychedelic violence, deformity, all delivered in a stark, high-contrast hand-assembled style that reminds me of both the early SPK record sleeves and the bizarre collage art of Mike Williams (Eyehategod). These hallucinatory works are from Ben Brucato (Clew Of Theseus), Shool K., Nnerves, and Pasi Markulla (of Finnish harsh noise project Bizarre Uproar), and there is also a short interview with Bizarre Uproar.

The zine is also packaged with a thirty-minute cassette tape from an anonymous artist, the only thing that's printed on the tape is the pyramid/eye image that appears on the zine and the stickers; whoever is behind this, they serve up a crushing black slab of hellish industrial noise, a mass of scraping squealing abrasion and amp abuse, massive low end droning heaviness like metallic rumbling doomdrone guitars, rhythmic bass throb, shrieking feedback, overdriven percussion, the shuddering grind of machinery breaking down. Definitely harsh, heavy industrial noise, similar to Ramleh, Con-Dom, etc.

And the set is assembled in a really cool package that consists of a black zip bag with the Cabal eye on the front, with the 5" x 7" zine, cassette, and Cabal stickers enclosed inside.