This album starts off with the shortest track by far, the bizarre “John Doe’s Carnival of Error”. It’s a very dense opener, and very dark in a twisted Blanck Mass way. While the opening bars aren’t that interesting or wild, I love the sheer heaviness to the atmosphere here. More than anything, this just comes off as seriously unsettling. The samples Power chooses are always so far out there and seemingly harmless. SEEMINGLY harmless, until he screws with them and layers on effects often with ghastly results. Then he feels the need to mix in these twinkling keyboard nots and blaring synths amongst these icy atmospheres, it’s nothing too wild but the mood of this album is ushered in so quickly. But just when you really think there’s not too much going on on this opener, “John Doe’s Carnival of Error” ends up bringing in some really intense, tightly would synths that are thrown headfirst into this already claustrophobic atmosphere. Between all of that, and these twisted vocal samples, add in the fact that by this point everything has sped and and gotten really brutal, you’ve got one hell of an opener. it’s clear that Blanck Mass is writing electronic music for the apocalypse. Blanck Mass doesn’t give you a single minute to breath though with his next track, “Rhesus Negative”. There’s no buildup here, there’s just one huge release right from the word go. This is absolutely dizzying, intense, and honestly terrifying. This is the closest thing material here to the sound of his “Dumb Flesh” album of a few years ago, with Blanck Mass sounding so much more primal here. The wonky synths in the background actually work great with all of the absolute chaos happening at the front of this track. But what really makes “Rhesus Negative” is the sampling, it makes this track go from kinda twisted to absolutely chilling. I feel like every time Blanck Mass samples these voice and sound clips from wherever he finds them, they all come off sounding so unnatural. Obviously they’ve been toyed with and edited so they’re far from “natural”, but it goes so much beyond that. Then, a little before the two minute mark, those really sinister synths come in behind everything and things get really damn tense for a while. What this ends up sounding like at the end of the day is the music of Oneohtrix Point Never on about 6 cups of coffee, it’s exhausting to even keep up with. The drums are intense, the synths are whimsical, and the sheer force of everything together is absolutely overpowering. Not to mention, that gigantic synth release right after the four minute mark is absolutely tremendous. The tortured screams that come in later on in the track will keep Prurient fans happy, if you haven’t caught on already if you’re into very left field electronic music producers you’ll love the material here. You just have to prepare for yourself to be absolutely pummeled by this track for 9 minutes. Even the last 2 minutes here is entertaining, when beautiful orchestrations pop in behind all of this madness. Up next, “Please” comes off even icier and even more distant sounding. If this album didn’t come off as some outsider electronic music already, man does it ever come off like that now. It’s chilling honestly, and Blanck Mass builds these atmospheres so well and so quickly that each time one of those synths hit I jump a little. If you were a fan of Blanck Mass’s self titled album, you’re going to want to check out this track. The vocal samples again are done so well, and even though it’s used fairly often throughout this album it doesn't even come off as played out. These samples end up taking this already very dark atmosphere and turns it into a truly hellish one. “Please” overall is MUCH easier to digest, and if you’re just a casual electronic music fan this is going to be more inviting. Don’t get me wrong though, it’s still very harsh though, and is it ever challenging still. This is music you really need to sit with. I love the chopping synths here, and the way everything builds up to the inclusion of that much bass-oriented riff. While this is still massive and suffocating, there's certainly a really fantastic groove to this that’s just as massive. Not to mention, as haunting as “Please” gets, it’s also strangely beautiful at the end of the day. “The Rat” up next doesn’t waste a single second bringing in intense tribal drums and a very harsh atmosphere. I just honestly wish that Blanck Mass took that atmosphere a little bit further. “The Rat” kinda comes off like any other faceless DJ in the EDM scene right now. It's still a good track, and it certainly gets me going, but as intense as this sounds, it doesn’t have the same hulking atmosphere as other tracks here. Thankfully, those icy synths that pop in a little bit later give this more of a Blanck Mass feel to it. That being said, it’s really probably my least favorite track here. Things are a little too all over the place, other tracks on here just feel so streamlined no matter how chaotic they get. That’s not to say that this is a bad track, it just doesn’t have that same freakish atmosphere I love so much.
By this point in the album, it should be pretty clear that Blanck Mass is a master at creating this heavy, freakish atmosphere. His work on “Silent Treatment” might be his best ever, and by far the best here. Every time this track starts up I get chills. I don’t even know what to call this track. Everything that’s great about Power’s solo material away from his usual Fuck Buttons fame is on display right here. The opening vocal samples are absolutely spine tingling, I don’t even know how to begin describing them. Those drums behind these samples are absolutely to die for, especially when they blast off taking us into the main beat of “Silent Treatment”. Going forward, it’s a combination of driving beats and freakish breakdowns mixed with some of his most left field vocal samples your going to hear. The twinkling synths behind the bass heavy rhythms give this one even a slight spacey feel. There’s just so much going on on “Silent Treatment” that I can’t help but love every second. And then when that actual singing comes in amongst all of this chaos, it goes from just bizarre to straight up disturbing. It’s adventurous, it’s heavy, and quite frankly it’s indescribable. All I can say is, it’s compelling from start to finish and absolutely jaw dropping. “Minnesota/Eas Fors/Naked” shows us very quickly thought that Blanck Mass is far from done with us. The intro on this one is absolutely ear shattering. The music on “World Eater” obviously continues to be challenging, and while the whole first minute of this one is pretty noisy it’s almost hypnotizing. If you’re a drone fan of any sort, this track is an absolute must listen. As far as a truly heavy track here, this is certainly one of the most crushing tracks here. However, if you can handle it, man is it ever worth it. The release here that eventually comes, transforming this track into a much more atmospheric track is absolutely breathtaking. The synths here are VERY icy, if up until this point you haven’t gotten any Prurient vibes, you are now. I do have to point out though, this is an album you’re gonna want a good pair of headphones for, one you’re going to want to just sit back and get swept up in. Listening to “Minnesota/Eas Fors/Naked” is strangely both really intense and really calming, it’s fantastic. I feel like every time I have “World Eater” as a whole all figured out, this album bites back hard. Take this track for example, it’s so serene and beautiful and totally out of left field. Each and every one of the tracks here are equally patience testing and seriously very hard to dissect, but the results are pretty fantastic. Not to mention, bizarrely enough the last minute of “Minnesota/Eas Fors/Naked” turns into a Chillwave track in a few moments of absolutely bliss. I mean come on, tell me this doesn’t sound like something off of one of Neon Indian’s first two albums, THAT crossed with the song from the final scene of the original Friday The 13th. What an absolute monolith of an album. “Hive Mind” at least starts us off with a little something easier to digest, sounding a little bit more like a progressive house track. However, Blanck Mass’s looming presence is all over this thing. But after the last two massive tracks, I can’t really be that upset with a little more of a stripped back track. While this at first seems a little disappointing, Blanck Mass shows he isn’t completely done with us just yet. Around the three and a half minute mark he starts throwing in some real production curve balls and unexpected blasts. All of a sudden, this is far from boring, and there’s tons of layering, great vocals sampling, hell I can barely tell it’s the same track anymore. All of a sudden, these last few minutes have become just as twisted and bizarre as other tracks here. Leave it to Blanck Mass to catch me off guard just when I felt like I had a few minutes to relax. “Hive Mind” ends up being exhausting right to the very last seconds, especially due to those fantastic wailing synths in the background.
Rating: 8.2/10
Give A Listen To: "Rhesus Negative", "Please", Silent Treatment", "Minnesota/Eas Fors/Naked”
Overall Thoughts: I've been a casual fan of Blanck Mass for years, but I've always felt like he could go so much deeper with his sound. Here, Blanck Mass certainly did just that. He took the ambient sound he found on his self titled album, added in the harshness and power of "Dumb Flesh", and made his finest album yet by far. These aren't electronic songs you can just pop on in a club and dance too (although I'd LOVE to see that to be honest). Each track here is patience testing and adventurous, kinda like Oneohtrix Point Never's stunning "Garden of Delete" or Prurient's "Frozen Niagara Falls", I mean not nearly as genre defining as those but in the same boat for sure. It makes me excited to see what Blanck Mass does next, it's fantastic.
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