The Axis of Perdition - Deleted Scenes From The Transition Hospital
Code666 Records
Black Metal, Dark Ambient
8 songs (55:40)
Release year: 2005
Code666 Records
Reviewed by Goat
Archive review

Describing Deleted Scenes From The Transition Hospital as ‘disturbing’ is like saying that George W. Bush is a ‘bit foolish’. This is several steps away from The Axis Of Perdition’s debut, the excellent The Ichneumon Method, and it’s a slightly less pure take on Black Metal, removing the blastbeats in favour of a more meandering, Blut Aus Nord-y set of beats, slowing the music and concentrating on the strange sound effects. It really does work its foul magic best if you shut your eyes and listen on headphones without interruption – it certainly doesn’t help that songs range from three to twelve minutes in length – yet even sat here in a well-lit room, it’s hard not to feel the creepy atmosphere as intended, with dips into madness like Pendulum Prey (Second Incarnation)’s manic screams and wails mixed with distorted chants, before it takes a sideways dip into lounge jazz. Yes, lounge jazz.

Listing the various forms of madness on offer would take far too long, but one especially deranged moment is the childlike yowling on Isolation Cubicle 312, conjuring up foul images of horrific human experimentation in isolated asylums. As before, there are no ‘songs’, but a freeranging style that teeters on the edge of the Avant-Garde; unhinged as the music here is, though, there is a sense of control that runs through the album, following the nameless protagonist as he wanders the corridors of hell, looking at what he sees and feeling his mind bend and snap as he experiences the transition hospital... even the samples used here are distorted and hard to figure out, the backing yells and screams only becoming apparent after several listens. You don’t want to listen again, but you find yourself doing so, afraid of what you might find but drawn to it irresistibly.

Even moreso than The Ichneumon Method, this is a descent into insanity, but where that album fights as it is dragged down, kicking and howling all the way, Deleted Scenes... seems to take a perverse pleasure in the unravelling of reality. If the previous album ran through the soundscapes screaming in terror, this one has clearly been living with it for a while; curled up on the floor shaking nervously with horror, jerking as each new sound reaches its ears and dissipates before a new insanity appears. Finale piece Deleted Scenes 2: In The Gauze-Womb Of The God Becoming is the album highlight, the destination of the journey, the cradle of sheer screaming fucking brutal madness, but the subtlety used when you reach there is devastating. This, then, is the end? No, thankfully, despite being about as underground as you can get The Axis Of Perdition have somehow survived thus far and a new album is imminent. Will we ever be rescued from this living nightmare?

MySpace
Killing Songs :
The album is one long moan of insanity...
Goat quoted 92 / 100
Adam quoted 95 / 100
Other albums by The Axis of Perdition that we have reviewed:
The Axis of Perdition - Tenements (Of The Anointed Flesh) reviewed by Goat and quoted 81 / 100
The Axis of Perdition - Urfe reviewed by Goat and quoted 40 / 100
The Axis of Perdition - The Ichneumon Method (And Less Welcome Techniques) reviewed by Goat and quoted 90 / 100
The Axis of Perdition - Physical Illucinations in the Sewer of Xulchilbara (The Red God) reviewed by Aaron and quoted no quote
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