Relapse Records pulls a rarity out of the closet with this late 90's release from the Sutcliffe Jugend side project called Bodychoke. Cold River Songs was the third and final album from this ensemble, a six-song release filled with hatred, angst, and brooding menace, and this reissue culls together all the original tracks plus three bonus cuts from the Completion CD of demos and unreleased songs. To put it mildly, Cold River Songs is not going to be for everyone-at times, you'd be hard pressed to call this metal, it's not quite gothic, there's little prog to be found here, but there's a certain amount of punk angst, avant-garde weirdness, and post-rock minimalism going on that makes for one hell of an adventurous listening experience. The title track is a lengthy excursion into your worst nightmare, throbbing bass and jangly guitar riffs poking around the mix while soft spoken words and screaming vocals attack your senses from all angles. The creepy "Your Submission" is something you won't want to play along in the house with the lights off, and the crushing "Victim", with its sinister cello, rumbling bass & guitar riffs, is what avant-garde heavy rock is all about. The mysterious & tribal "Aftermath" is a long, winding psychedelic journey into the unknown, something along the lines of what Pink Floyd was doing in the late 60's/early 70's, spacey guitar lines, spooky keys, effects, and ethnic percussion slowly building to a monstrous crescendo of nightmarish proportions.
All told, Cold River Songs probably has a limited audience, but if you have a stomach for avant-garde sounds along the lines of Godflesh and Swans, and failed to check this out the first time around, you might want to investigate this one in its remastered form here.
Track Listing
1. Control 5:43
2. Cold River Song 10:14
3. Your Submission 6:20
4. Victim 5:56
5. Ideal Home 3:58
6. Aftermath 11:39
7. White Light Killer 3:26
8. Woman Unkind 4:22
9. Trial 3:03
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