SISSY SPACEK - Ways Of Confusion

Release date August 1/18 (Nuclear War Now! Productions)

I delve into most of the extreme metal sub-genres greedily, imbibing the likes of black, death, d-beat, black/death, thrash and grind, on a regular basis. One sub-genre I've generally steered clear of to date is noisecore, never really having come across it in the albums presented by the various labels that supply me with upcoming releases. So, when I received a release the label defined as grindcore/noisecore, I jumped at the chance to give it a spin. Given that I enjoy the odd Napalm Death, Terrorizer, Leng Tche, Circle Of Dead Children etc. every now and then, I thought that incorporation of grindcore would help me in my introduction to noisecore.

Onto the album itself. Wow - what a train wreck. I mean literally. Many of the 39 (!!!) tracks (lasting a total of 16 minutes) have segments that sound like metal scraping on rails seconds before violent impact. Others sound like multiple different tracks patched together - quite the feat when most songs last less than 20 seconds. Even when Sissy Spacek stumble onto a good grindcore riff, you're left wanting more when they move onto another "riff" ten seconds later.

That said, noisecore is supposed to sound noisy, so one can say that Sissy Spacek have that down pat. No question. They also got a chuckle out of me by placing 'Usain Bolt' and 'Braking' back-to-back over a combined 12 seconds of fury. Additionally, closing out the album with the "epic" 'Alphabets' (the only track exceeding 1 minute), containing a series of stop/start vomitory expulsions, was inspired.

Bottom line though - will I ever listen to this again? No chance. I admire the conviction, attitude and blasting intensity, but it really does just sound like noise. Not music.

[5]