Calamity Toilet is a wonderfully nerve searing ‘n’ tooth jarring C20- that sits somewhere between feedback squealing ‘n’ relenting percussive attacks. It takes in two around nine tracks, and each is as back-breaking and gruelling as each other- so not a release for every occasion, but if you are in the mood for a right searing and battering sonic hit, this does the job just fine.

This release appeared on Small Worm, a month or so back. The label is run/ curated by London Noisemaker/ key scenester James Shearman- and its focus is to put out some of the more interesting/ difficult to bracket noise releases, and with Calamity Toilet, they have done it once again. The physical version of this release was ltd to ten hand-drawn covered tapes, and at the time of writing this review, a few remain, and can be purchased from here.

First, up on side A we have “Burst Universe”- here we find a jarring and shrill blend of forking-to-slicing feedback & relentless crashing-to-hammering drum hits. Around these two central elements, we get hints of buried storm like noise, and bluntly nasty/ crude vocals growls- which seem to get more spat/ deranged as we go on.  The track creates a truly nervy jangling, yet subtle uneasy listening experience- with the whole bringing to mind be tortured and molested by a rabid bigfoot, as you're hung up inside an ice cave in the middle of a battering snowstorm.

Flipping over the tape, and we have “mutagenic tunnel”- here we find a more even mixture of unrelenting percussive pummelling and primal growled/ groaned vocals. Around these key elements, we find moments of slicing & shrill almost ritualistic reverb/ feedback, with effective use of brief silence/ break. If the first track saw you been attacked by the bigfoot, this one finds him carrying out some strange and barbaric occult ritual on your now twitching and jabbering body.

Initially, both tracks come across as just blunt and barbaric sound attacks- but over repeat plays you start to make crude detail and nasty atmospheric touches, which certainly rewarding repeat plays. Together they create a wonderfully overwhelming and nasty little C20, that really nicely batters and bays you into submission.

As I said early this is a release that’s difficult to fully categorizer- as there are elements of both noise, brutal/ unrelenting improv, and extreme metal/ HC here….but Calamity Toilet never fully fits into any of these brackets creating its own fairly distinctive and brutalizing attack.