Niellerade Fallibilisthorstar — Skrankwerk

Definitely not a bandname that's easy to remember, which may be different for Swedish speakers, but I have to doublecheck for typing errors and wouldn't even dare to pronounce it. The next thing is, do I dare to listen to it?

Skrankwerk, their third full length release is a very a challenging soundtrack to things mysterious and unpleasant. What's he building in there? as Tom Waits once wondered. Listening to Skrankwerk is like being in the dark, only hearing people doing stuff that can't stand the light of day. Obscure business conducted in deep dungeons and you don't dare to close your eyes and imagine which instruments of torture are used exactly, not to mention the danger of what might happen to you if you stop looking. The absence of human voices, except for some heavy breathing, only making it only more scary of its exact nature.

The subtle and hazy drones to add atmosphere to the mysterious labour are what should make music of what appears to be a random collection of recorded sounds. Footsteps, dripping water, heavy clunks, rattlings of big cogwheels and chains and overall a suffocating, humid atmosphere. When I put on this album at first this randomness seems too much like holding a mic to some desolate construction site, throwing around some objects and calling that music. But slowly it it sucks you into something darker, like fieldrecordings from the workingsite of In The Penal Colony by Franz Kafka, the one Frank Zappa suggested to read before listening to his The Chrome Plated Megaphone of Destiny.

This band from Umeå, Sweden (which features members of the perverse black metal band Woods Of Infinity) demands an active imagination and preferably darkness. Without these, the experience may fall flat, but if you have both you're allowed to partake in some occult, cathartic ritual.