RIFF REWIND (23/05/2013): The Body - "Master, We Perish"

 

The Body’s Chip King and Lee Buford can emote pain like no other band, and their ability to move between the often strict confines of the metal world and the electronic music sphere is perhaps best illustrated on their 2016 full length “No One Deserves Happiness”, an album that eludes categorization.

Buford and King are outlaws of the metal world, striving to create music without a category. They embody many contrasts but always deliver punishing music in volume and scale.  Back in 2013 in an ongoing pilgrimage towards the apocalypse and perpetual hatred for humankind, THE BODY unleashed their “Master, We Perish” EP which showcased the THE BODY’s nihilistic audio terror with three blackened bursts of noise-drenched, low-fi doom.

With mangled-human cover art by Manifester, “Master, We Perish” was released as a 12” EP, CDEP, cassette and digital download on April 30^th 2013 via At A Loss Recordings.  Today we rewind the riffs to 4 years ago to the day and reacquaint ourselves with “Master, We Perish”.  So if you missed it the first time, be sure to remedy you error by checking out our review in full below. 

By: Chris Markwell

Album Type: EP

Date Released:30/4/2013

Label: At A Loss Recordings

This is a musical Frankenstein at work: stitching together lifeless vocal snippets and attaching them to raw guitar and drum tissue.  What is created is nothing short of terrifying: it should not be, but here it is in front of you.  ‘Master, We Perish’ is a fuse leading to dynamite, and it gets lit every time you listen to it.  Don’t say I didn’t warn you. 

“Master, We Perish” CD//DD//LP tracklisting:

1) The Ebb and Flow of Tides in a Sea Of Ash

2) The Blessed lay Down and Writhe in Agony

3) Worship

The Review:

Sometimes in this life we come across… anomalies.  Strange happenings we experience but cannot quite explain.  Portland, Oregon’s The Body is an example of such an occurrence: a two-piece metal act that sounds like an entire orchestra of angry, darkly creative musical alchemists.  Their latest offering is the EP ‘Master, We Perish’, and it’s three tracks of pure, churning hate.  Let’s let the autopsy begin. 

EP opener ‘The Ebb And Flow Of Tides In A Sea Of Ash’ begins with an air raid siren rolling up and letting loose, followed by a low, ripping guitar riff that feels like you’re being crushed with the sheer force of it.  It reminds me of Pulled Apart By Horses, with a generous tint of Hierophant mixed in.  As openers go, it’s a mighty beast, and Chip’s vocal cries are those of a madman, freshly escaped from the asylum. 

Track 2 opens in a much darker, low-key way: a guitar riff, doomy yet melancholy, mixes with some of Lee’s strange samples, creating a very unsettling, dark atmosphere to descend.  This is ‘The Blessed Lay Down And Writhe In Agony’, and it’s a really messed-up slice of doom.  This is a musical Frankenstein at work: stitching together lifeless vocal snippets and attaching them to raw guitar and drum tissue.  What is created is nothing short of terrifying: it should not be, but here it is in front of you: ‘IT’S ALIVE!  IT’S ALIVE!’ 

Lee’s very fine drumming work begins proceedings on final track ‘Worship’ and, clocking in at 9:39, it’s a real odyssey of a song, one that takes you down blind alleys and through streets with boarded-up houses and smashed windows.  The drums are unstoppable on this track and, frankly, the entire musical experience found here is nothing short of suffocating until it bursts open at around 6 minutes in and becomes this grinding, doom steamroller.  ‘Master, We Perish’ is a fuse leading to dynamite, and it gets lit every time you listen to it.  Don’t say I didn’t warn you. 

 Band info: Facebook