TranscendNoise

30. Siavash Amini & Matt Finney – Gospel I've written quite a lot on the sonic world of Clawing and had the incredible chance to pick Matt Finney´s brain about his life and creation. Gospel , however, I didn´t highlight enough and this despite it becoming my favorite Finney moment of 2018 and at that one of the most jarring edifices of abuse and trauma, I ever listened to. With Siavash Amini at the helm, bringing to life three haunting soundscapes that feel like living inside Silent Hill´s hospitals and small neighborhoods, Finney went deeper into his past and explicitly stated what close listening unearthed in his previous work. The horrors of becoming a victim of sexual abuse at the hands of your own father, the aftermath that deals with unheard prayers to God and a religion unable to help in the real violence humans inflict upon each other. Maybe the thing that always pulls me towards Finney´s music is the fact that he is equally at loss as the next victim, his trademar...

30. Ragana – Inviolate (Let Our Names Be Forgotten) While Ragana appear on the same split with dark overlords Thou, "Inviolate" purposefully seems to delay and misdirect their crushing outbreaks in a post-punk cloak. What the band has been perfecting for a few albums now comes in full effect on the slow start, growing from a form of tedium and invocation into a bolt of focussed friction. As Thou drag these moments through sludge and dirt, Ragana´s guitar remains clear even in the black metal turnups. After a small silence the song transitions into a more direct assault, the harsh vocals sweeping in and exploding into a clean section of both voices congealing. The dynamic here is airtight, Ragana not only hold their own against two superb Thou tracks but with "Inviolate" alone carve a different wound of dread and draw blood by never standing still to let light or relief subside into a sense of beauty and comfort.  LET OUR NAMES BE FORGOTTEN (Split with THO...