This split was an important one for me, so I’ve faffed a lot when it’s come to the review. I bought the CD version at a record fair off the back of a zine review (Russell Remains in Fracture, maybe?), and it was my first introduction to either band… a twin threat to my sanity that would push me further down the doom/sludge slope and help set me off on a seemingly never-ending quest for this or that arcane slice of vinyl (and, while we’re here, if you want to sell either band’s split with Sloth then please get in touch…).
Musically, I was sold as soon as the first note was struck, and 20 years on it still hits me in the guts in exactly the same way. Noothgrush were doing something special with their two tracks, hitting an alchemical sweet spot that measured leaden heaviness with reluctant groove. ‘Hatred For The Species’ sounds like it could level buildings, and ‘Draize’ weighs motive against message while smashing your head repeatedly into the porcelain shit bowl we all pollutingly inhabit.
Corrupted, meanwhile, offer up the 19-minute ‘Inactive’. While not their absolute best it’s still a great song, and also a fantastic entry point. It’s glowering, atonal and at first listen mystifyingly simple, unfurling like a poisonous bloom and gradually revealing itself to be a life-fucking, spirit-murdering exercise in degradation and obliterative misery.
This edition comes remastered and with different artwork to the Reservoir edition, and while it looks handsome and sounds fantastic I have to admit that it does seem like a missed opportunity to have omitted the two additional tracks from the CD release (an on-the-nose Neanderthal cover from Noothgrush and the ominous clank of Corrupted’s ‘Estar En Visperas De Ultimo’). Admittedly this is perhaps a rather churlish quibble considering how good the whole thing is, so the basic takeaway remain simple: if you love horrific music and hate life, don’t miss out on your second chance to get your hands on this punishing sludge masterpiece.