Corrections House - Last City Zero (2013)^{Release ID: 3298}

Ooh, look at that! Another sludgy industrial metal supergroup. This one consists of members from bands Neurosis, Eyehategod, Minsk, and Yakuza. They were active for 8 years and two albums until splitting up in 2020. I'm guessing the split is related to guitarist/vocalist Scott Kelly getting fired from Neurosis for abusing his family, which didn't come to light until 2022. Anyway, their debut Last City Zero doesn't reach the perfection of Greymachine, but it still reaches a solid level of greatness...

You can practically hear what the members have in store from their respective bands including apocalyptic heaviness and nihilistic themes. The industrial side of the sound stems from the guitar distortion, drum programming, and keyboard usage.

Opening the album is "Serve or Survive" with some ambient drone. Kelly's gloomy vocals definitely throw back to Neurosis, before main vocalist Mike Williams starts shouting through the heavy doomy industrial metal music. "Bullets and Graves" is a shorter industrial track that sounds like Neurosis and Skinny Puppy collaborated with each other in the year 1990. "Party Leg and Three Fingers" has more of that apocalyptic vibe.

Taking on a different while still dark sound, "Run Through the Night" is more of a folk-ish tune. "Dirt Poor and Mentally Ill" has chanting vocals while still making room for Williams' rage. Soon the lyrics become more poetic, especially in the spoken bridge.

"Hallows of the Stream" has mysterious jazz that would fit well for a crime noir film. The more poetic lyrics continue on in the title track, albeit in a spoken story over quiet guitar strums. Prophets and madmen seem to be the main theme there along with human suffering. The most unforgiving music and lyrics come straight with the closing "Drapes Hung by Jesus". An ambient intro leads into industrial metal that gradually becomes heavier, plus some eerie sax, before the last bit of lyrical poetry at the end.

Last City Zero allows you experience destruction and withering hope pleasantly from the comfort of your home. The experimentation blended with steel-strong heaviness is not something you would find in every supergroup. It fits well for a world reduced to ruin by climate change and carbon footprints....

Favorites: "Serve of Survive", "Party Leg and Three Fingers", "Dirt Poor and Mentally Ill", "Drapes Hung by Jesus"

When I saw no one on this site had rated, much less reviewed, this album, I said , shoot, thats the next one I've got to listen to , it could be a hidden jem! And I was sonically rewarded for this experiment. Do you want to listen to something HEAVY?  This is HEAVY. You will feel its WEIGHT  thrown at you as you listen to it. I was thankful that this album was heavy on the industrial side of Industrial metal and on the "light dusting of machine sound used"  The vocal loopings, the screeching sounds, the beating of drums the mechanical poundings all coming together across the  heavy tracks in a variety of ways as each track was distinct enough from each other that they felt different and did not get boring as some lesser industrial offerings can. This Album took me on a journey as I listened and I felt like I was watching a story unfold. After uplift of sorts it brings on Run Through the Night,  The absolute brutal hit you will take in  Dirt Poor and Mentally Ill is delicious. 10/10.  The spoken word poetry bits by Williams may not be for everyone. I personally enjoy them as a juxatoposition against heavy tracks in between and the story that this album tells.  The final track is the only one that doesn't seem to go with the rest of the ' story of the album as I listened to it' in my opininon, and at nearly 10 minutes long, it was lost on it me a bit,  butoverall I hope that others will see this and give this album a listen too, it deserves more ears.