Noise, Noisecore, hell, just about any variation of the “Noise” genre is something I never got. While I’ve been enjoying some of the modern “noisenicks” out there like Rabbits and Arabrot, there are just some performers in this style I can’t wrap my head around even to this day. The style as a whole just completely escapes me. Even with people explaining what makes it so great or yelling at me in hopes I’d just submit to the almighty power that is Noise, it still misses me entirely no matter how blue in the fact these people get.

My first experience with this was back in the early days of my Metal discovery, picking up a few vinyl EPs through the Relapse store during a sale. I remember putting them on my mother’s record player, and feeling absolutely ripped off. “What the hell is enjoyable about this?” I asked myself. “If I wanted to listen to shit breaking I’d grab the hammer downstairs and start smashing the windows of the cars parked along the street. Is this seriously something people consider music?” And since starting Apoch’s Metal Review, I have been thankful to not receive a promo of this style of Noise at all.

That is, until now…

Yesterday a promo from Earsplit PR graced my inbox. In it was an invite to experience an EP by the one-man project known as Redneck. What at first looked like an underground Sludge Metal album thanks to the crude, hand drawn artwork, I immediately was anxious to tear into it, even after seeing the label putting it out was Eolian Empire. With two songs total, both pushing past sixteen minutes, it seemed like I was in for a solid treat!

Oh how wrong I was.

“Possession I” kicked things off by smashing some glass (or plates, not sure which). After a few minutes it all ended up muffled by overmodulated rumbling bass that got richer as the song goes on. This helped build the tension in a sixties or seventies-era Horror film, creating the nightmarish scenario of a break in while adding some gritty noise to wear on your nerves as the crashing glass now sounds like objects being thrown about in the middle of a hurricane. It stayed this way through most of the remainder, though some high pitched whistling noises did chime in later. Just as it started doing something different and picking up intensity, it just stopped. Of course! Why the hell not?

On the other side of the tape there was “Possession II,” which started with the same kind of distorted bass rumble in a different pattern than “Possession I” had. That nightmarish scenario of the previous song had basically been replaced what could be considered irritating white noise by some, and by some I include myself. For the first three minutes I was reminded of sitting in front of the small black and white television I had as a kid, surfing the channels and messing with the antenna in hopes of catching the signal my Saturday morning cartoons were broadcasting on. I hated that sound and I still hate it now, so it definitely didn’t help sway me with this track, even in some of the spots there were cleaned up a bit. Once again towards the end, but a little earlier this time, some high pitched squealing kicked in, as if distorted nails on a chalk board or guitar chords, wrapping up with the crashing glass or plates once more.

While “Possession II” didn’t really live up to the tension or horrific traits of “Possession I,” it did come across a bit nightmarish at times, but that all relies on one’s own perception of the sounds utilized. To me it started out as a break in during a bad storm, escalating into a full blown hurricane or tornado, and then an extensive monsoon in audio form. While it didn’t do much for me except put me on edge for a little while in the first song, it did drown out the constant Christmas music being played on the radio at work, so there’s that. While I’m not a fan of the style, Redneck does seem to be trying to do something a little different (based on what I’ve heard in the past) by manipulating the sounds into a hellish scenario instead of relying on random noises to form some kind of Ambient performance, and for that fans of the Noise genre might want to take notice of this two song recording.

That said, I still don’t get Noise…

Digital review copy of this release provided by Eolian Empire Records via Earsplit PR.