MASS

It’s been some time since Promonium Jesters released any new material, with founding member Ethan Moseley concentrating on taking the more noisy and experimental aspects of the band to vicious extremes under his Mass solo moniker. Resentment Venom proves to be an apt title for this album, for only the most ardent aficionado of the genre will be able to endure its 43 minutes spread out across nine tracks. Of course, there are moments interspersed amid the miasmal waves of punishing static and distortion that yield some semblance of a percussive rhythm or even something evoking a harmonious effect; for example, “Nerve” presents a sustained spectral pad that drones like a mournful procession, only glitching out at the end as subtle distortions linger in the background, threatening to overtake the track… but never doing so. Such can’t be said of the rest of the album, for the formula is pretty well defined from the onset of “Vehement Monsters,” in which a bell-like loop gradually gives rise to washes of noise that seemingly scream at the listener, hints of voices struggling to be heard finally revealing in the final seconds the very disconcerting statement of “they had found her severed head.” One is easily reminded of the horrific audio accompaniments of Silent Hill. Similar effects occur in the following “Tenements Vermin,” the radio chatter the begins “Enshrine Moments” that leads into a classical piece made eerie by the excessive volume, disintegrating it into a grating ambience, and then again in “Mementos,” where the computerized bleeps from ALIEN give rise to a rhythmic phasing throb. Alas, the closing “You Can’t Stay Here” deviates from the established progressions, allowing the titters and chitters of static in the foreground to move across the speakers like insects, the scrapes and howls of feedback subjecting us to persistent sonic torture that conspicuously doesn’t offer much variation to justify its 10 minute length. But then again, Moseley is clearly not interested in making the listener comfortable, and while there isn’t an overt flippancy to the noise Mass makes on Resentment Venom, the intrigue too easily wears thin more often than not. - ReGen Magazine