August 2021 Feature Release – The Sphere Edition
So just like that we find that a new month is upon us which of course means that we’ll be nominating a brand new monthly feature release for each clan. This essentially means that we’re asking you to rate, review & discuss our chosen features for no other reason than because we enjoy the process & banter. We’re really looking forward to hearing your thoughts on our chosen releases so don’t be shy.
This month’s feature release for The Sphere has been selected by yours truly. It's 1991's "Lo Flux Tube" sophomore album from avant-garde New Jersey industrial metallers Old.
https://metal.academy/releases/1690
My nomination of the 1991 sophomore album from New Jersey artist OLD as our monthly The Sphere feature release was very much intended so that I could take a retrospective look at an album that I overlooked at the time. I’d become acquainted with OLD through their 1988 debut full-length “Old Lady Drivers” a short time before the release of “Lo Flux Tube” which was mainly due to the band’s link to the amazingly consistent Earache Records label. Unfortunately, the tongue-in-cheek brand of grindcore that the debut album presented me with hadn’t left a huge impression on me however I noticed that their follow-up effort seemed to be receiving an increased level of attention so gave it a casual once over. It didn’t hit the spot for me on that brief dalliance so I redirected my attentions towards releases that were more in line with my tastes at the time. Listening to the album now, I have to say that I’m not terribly surprised at this outcome given that I was completely obsessed with the darkest & most extreme death/black metal in the world back in the early 1990’s but there were also a couple of obvious obstacles for a young fella to overcome too. My musical palate is much better equipped to navigate those issues these days though so I think it’s time to see whether I’ve missed out on a rewarding artistic experience over the last three decades or not.
The first element that confronted me after pressing that little triangle on my iPhone screen is the weak production job & I was immediately reminded of the reasons for my having initially struggled with “Lo Flux Tube”. The guitars reside in a space that almost sounds like they’re in another room & have a very noisy & treble-heavy tone that reminds me a lot of early 80’s gothic rock & post-punk. In fact, those influences also play a role in the use of the bass guitar throughout the tracklisting with the bass being positioned quite forward in the mix even though it’s not afforded all that much actual bass from an equalization point of view. It took me a full listen to the duration of the album to become accustomed to production flaws but once I returned for my second visit I found that I was able to see past them & the album started to open up a bit. In saying that though, this is an unusually inaccessible record for other reasons too. To be more specific, the vocals of Alan Dubin (who was also in Khanate with band leader James Plotkin during the early 2000’s) take some getting used to as they amount to nothing more than a shrieking black metal scream that at first seems fairly out of place on top of the experimental noise going on beneath it. Again, this issue becomes much easier to deal with over time & I’m now a lot more comfortable with it but there’s no doubt it was a career-limiting move & I can’t help but think that these vocal & production traits are what prevented me from committing to “Lo Flux Tube” a good three decades ago now.
Instrumentally, the album openly highlights a couple of fairly obvious inspirations but utilizes them in a way that amounts to much more than simply being the sum of those influences. The first is that of English industrial metallers Godflesh with the consistent use of artificial harmonics & feedback over the top of mid-paced & mechanical sounding drum machine programming forming the basis of OLD’s sound. But it needs to be said that OLD take that sound to much more bizarre places than Justin Broadrick ever dreamt of with avant-garde Canadian progressive metal outfit Voivod playing a big part in the chaos that ensues at regular intervals across the tracklisting. In fact, it wouldn't be a stretch to claim "Lo Flux Tube" as a combination of "Streetcleaner" & "Dimension Hatross" really as there’s an unconventional & often alarming psychotic feel to the way that the riffs are structured & it seems like they’ve made a conscious decision to focus on messing with people’s minds as much as creating an enjoyable listening experience. OLD often employ the use of psychedelics in order to further dismantle the listeners mental state which works pretty well for the most part & is a characteristic that was always going to offer me a fair amount of appeal. It doesn’t always work of course but it’s hard not to admire the ambition even when things don’t quite gel.
“Lo Flux Tube” is undeniably a strange listening experience however it’s also an entertaining one with only the misguided instrumental psych-out “Dissassemble” failing to hit the mark. Its flaws were always going to prevent it from reaching the top tiers of the industrial metal genre however there’s a lot to take in here which sees it possessing a strong replay value that’s further enhanced by the sheer intrigue it offers with its avant-garde & cerebral approach.
For fans of Godflesh, Voivod & early Scorn.
3.5/5
This is a really interesting one that I've come back to now after first checking it out early in the month and while I still enjoy it, I didn't find myself bumping it up a grade like I thought I would. Given how adverse I can be towards the monotony of some Industrial Metal Lo Flux Tube is definitely more up my alley in being more progressive and sometimes downright weird, moving much closer to being a full fledged Infinite release rather than the Sphere. I didn't get a chance to get out their supposed Grindcore beginnings, but I can take a guess and say that I'm glad I'm putting it off since I probably enjoy this release infinitely more. Given this was released in 1991 I'm really surprised to hear vocals and an overall avant-garde-ness that reminds me of the more off-the-wall Black Metal releases in the mid-1990's. Really goes to show how interconnected everything can be.
The drums are just mechanical enough to give it that base industrial sound and while the guitar riffs can be grindy and monotonous on some tracks they definitely lean into the more random and crazy side on the more compelling tracks like "Outlive", "Citient Null", and "Z.U.". The bass is what impressed me the most on Lo Flux Tube though, having a powerful presence that overshadows the guitar in a good way during key moments. Even though the avant-garde industrial guitar whining can be cool, the killer bass lines really help to keep the album grounded and not something that I just zone out to. Even though I like the seemingly Black Metal inspired harsh vocals they get pretty old by the time "Marzuraan" rolls around since there isn't a whole lot of variety to them. I'd say there isn't a whole lot of variety in Lo Flux Tube from an album standpoint either, since even though what they're doing is crazy and unique, it's repeated in a way where I eventually find the grinding guitar noodling to be kind of dull. It's still a very cool album that showed me a side of Industrial Metal that I didn't really know existed, and the fact that this came out in the early 1990's makes it even more impressive and strange. I think I can throw this one on once and a while if I'm feeling it, but I think it lacks some substance in the ideas it tries to explore.
3.5/5