Body, The - I've Seen All I Need to See (2021)^{Release ID: 25909}

I am no hater of drone metal. Earth 2 is in my top ten metal albums of all time and I love Khanate, Sunn O))) and most of what Steven O'Malley and Greg Anderson put their name to. Hell, I even have The Body's 2016 album, No One Deserves Happiness scored as an eight out of ten. But I've Seen All I Need to See did very little for me, at least in a positive sense.

The majority of this album sounds like a recording of some demented maniac getting off in his garage on his comprehensive collection of power tools. The "vocals" consist of distant howls that often sound like an old-fashioned steam train whistle heard from several miles away. I must admit, it does pique my interest in one or two places, the track The City Is Shelled being the "standout" for me, but also the ending of opener, A Lament, when the thin keys come in and a couple of the drum patterns, such as early in The Handle / The Blade and during the latter half of Eschatological Imperative, are pretty decent. For the majority of the album, though, I just don't get it I'm afraid and a going-nowhere track like A Pain of Knowing just seems utterly futile. I've now done what I consider my due diligence and having listened through it three times in it's entirety, I can't see myself ever walking this particular path again. So, to paraphrase the album's title, I've Heard All I Need to Hear and let's leave it at that.

The continued critical success for the duo of The Body is utterly perplexing at this point. This group has been delivering punishing drone metal at a speedy pace for the last ten years and here we have yet another new album from the group, released at the beginning of the year 2021 and I did enjoy this, although I can certainly tell that this record is not tailored for everyone.

For starters, this is not a metal album. I think that the tag of this being metal is more indicative of where the band has been; deriving many of its sounds from industrial and sludge metal. This album is far more electronic, perhaps further exemplifying the industrial tag, but fewer guitars than ever before. Chip King's absurd vocals are still present to the point of inaudibility as the rest of the instrumentals collapse around you in a blown out mix of (and this is a compliment) disgusting plunderphonics and mix clipping. Now, under most circumstances, this would be a net negative, but it is quite obvious that The Body made this album sound this way intentionally. It almost compares almost too well to an album from Lingua Ignota.

Unlike Lingua Ignota, the lyrics and themes don't take very much precedent, but they serve the same purpose. They are shredded beyond repair and feel as if you are being pulled down into the depths of Hell itself. The instrumentals are obtrusive and gross, layered in an almost ridiculous amount of feedback and wub effects and together, they create a homogenized mess that is as hard to pin down as you might expect, but it is immense and brimming with atmosphere.

Now on the downside, I have never been the biggest fan of Drone music even on its best days, so while the album is quite brisk for a drone album (around thirty-eight minutes), I still cannot deny that the constant repetition of ideas from track to track can become redundant, especially when you get to those five minute tracks like "A Pain of Knowing", "The City Is Shelled" and "Path of Failure". In addition, while I do appreciate the atmosphere that is on display, the blown out electronics in the mix is a little overwhelming for my taste. I liken it to the kind of shit you get out of a Bubblegum Bass record, but at least they have the decency to toss in a cleaner passage every once in a while.

But that would be taking away from the overall appeal of an album like this. So while The Body have found a sound that speaks to them, and they can do it without collaborators, they can make this obtrusive mix work. However, having never been a big fan of these sounds in the first place, I do have to be a little bit tentative in my recommendation. It really isn't for me, but it does sound good for what it's worth, and that's all I need to see.