Fire In The Head — I/CON

As I'm typing this I actually do have a headache while angry power electronics come soaring out of the speakers. The bio of this project founded by Michael Page speaks of catharsis... well, indeed.

From the first track on you'll find yourself in a grim maelstrom of unforgiving distortion. The kind of sounds that take you to dark industrial landscapes under pitchblack skies where rain comes poaring from coaly clouds, the only light coming from tarry puddles that caught fire. Mostly white noise, but in Fissures In The Lining there's a bit of pitched sounds but they provide no comfort at all. It's just another glasscutting frequency to forcefully push you further to the edge. The attack continues relentlessly until the last track The Least Of Our Errors, for which Lautréamont's infamous Maldoror provided the lyrical content. Not that you can actually make anything out of them, as the vocals are distorted into something unintelligable but undeniably angry, buried under layers of harsh noise.

I/CON is a merciless attack on the senses. Nasty, dark and violent, to recreate the darker aspects of humanity. Page gives the listener little room to breathe and the suffocating 45 minutes will likely leave you gasping for air. And in that, it succeeds in its ambition.