Wolf Eyes

The concept of noise as music is lost on the majority of the general public. Music whose sole intent is to motivate mammalian viscera to spontaneously evacuate just doesn’t sit well with most people. Wolf Eyes, a band that thrive on the grotesque and shun the mundane trappings of conventional song forms, revel in noise as a swine revels in its own fecal matter. However, the approach taken by the trio on Human Animal — their second album for Sub Pop — is to diminish outlandish aggression and to concentrate on the creation of a well-crafted tension and release mechanism. Opening track "A Million Years” — with its sparse, metallic clang and punctuated bass stabs — puts forth an aura of uneasiness that is further explored on the following two tracks. This dread triptych winds an internal spring to within moments of its breaking point. Release is achieved upon arrival of the violent onslaught that is the title track. It’s apparent that the replacement of Aaron Dilloway with Hair Police’s Mike Connelly certainly hasn’t softened the blows doled out by the Wolf Eyes juggernaut (case in point is "Rusted Mange”). New avenues of terror are merely being explored and capitalised upon. There are certainly many avenues leading to the Wolf Eyes universe, and perhaps the Sub Pop releases are the best points of entry for the uninitiated. Human Animal, with its unearthly subtlety, is probably the best way in.