Savagely dissonant yet emotive grindcore powerviolence trio Godhole team up with Scottish harsh noise legend and cultivator of Vile Noise Records, Crozier on this brutal 7". Seven tracks of face melting punk chaos slamming against barbaric harsh noise walls, brain scrambling signal generators and ear bleed inducing noise. Imagine the Scottish version of the Full Of Hell vs Merzbow collaboration, on a variety of tasteful vinyl colours.

Attn:Magazine
Godhole can’t excavate their fury quick enough. It’s all too fast, too frenetic. Crozier’s noise starts to spit through the seams as the pressure tips into excess: funnelled between the guitars in thin jets, erupting in mini-volcanoes upon the surfaces of snare drums, smothering voices in sandpaper blankets. In the case of the shorter pieces (such as “The Ape”, which rumbles past in a mere eight seconds), noise and powerviolence become inseparable – feedback strangles the screams and mangled synthesisers wedge themselves amidst the riffs. Combined, the artists enact a level of rage that resides beyond the reach of music alone. Where dissonance and blastbeats can only pummel and twist music into uglier shapes, the horrible spew of Crozier obliterates the connection to music altogether. This is aggression unhinged from the civility of melody and tempo; rage breaking free from rationale. The whole thing is over in seven minutes. In fact, so relentless are the opening five that the record’s final movements are dogged by aerobic lethargy; the riffs stagger between doom and frantic punk, with harsh noise occasionally gushing like blood from a fresh wound, draining both Godhole and Crozier of any residual vigour. For those last few seconds, the record collapses into aimlessness. Screams whirl cyclonically as distortion gushes over the guitars, drums reduced to a muffled jackhammer that judders somewhere beneath. It’s a powerful crescendo, but an inevitable one. Anthrophobia was always destined to reduce into a state of impotence and waste.

Echoes And Dust
Everyone claims to always be a noise band or to know about noise and then when the conversation starts they immediately either mention Full of Hell or Mezbow. This is usually where the conversation ends and I either walk away or say something and get punched in the face. There is so much more than just the above mentioned and being able to integrate it at a level where it complements something like grindcore or powerviolence is fucking art my friends. When I reflect and I think of bands that have managed to do this, obviously, Man is the Bastard immediately comes to mind and then going on further there’s always Endless Blockade and their iconic work with Pig Heart Transplant to name but a few. But this isn’t about those bands, this is about the new wave of powerviolence and grindcore meets harsh noise. I’ve known about Godhole for some time dealing with Mind Ripper Collective and they’ve decided to take the plunge to the noise incorporating savagery of Crozier. Crozier is one of the most recognizable cultivators of noise in Scotland and in doing so also started Vile Noise Records. But enough about that, let’s get to the release. Think you can handle devastating noise incorporated with one of the most recent and exciting grindcore acts out of Scotland? Well, here is your chance as the collaboration of Godhole Vs Crozier is short, sweet and ear-shattering and fits onto a 7-inch titled Anthrophobia for your consumption. The integration goes almost unnoticeable until you turn the volume up and you can almost taste the distortion being thrown at you along with some incredible synth work from the mighty Crozier. This is driven by the lads from Godhole doing what they do best and using that crust influenced grindcore to piledrive you six-feet deep. I also pick up a slightly muffled doomy undertone, which just adds to the final product. This is fucking fantastic and will rip into you like a hacksaw powered by white-noise and static. The intensity is simply out of this world. I would highly recommend Anthrophobia to anyone who’s into grindcore and noise, because this blew me away.

Ninehertz
It's actually quite difficult to make grind sound more unpleasant and abrasive than it already does isn't it? As if breakneck-speed drums, distorted and abused bass and guitar and screamed vocals need anything else crammed into the mix. That said, Crozier, Scottish harsh noise legend and cultivator of Vile Noise Records does Godhole a favour here, adding in blunt, forceable edges to the already crushing sound. Crunches of static, screaming arcs of feedback and broken electronics imbue the palpable anger with a diseased feel. Songs here barely scratch a minute, the sheer catharsis bleeding through in sharp, short shards. Lyrics seem borne of desperation, and are delivered with enough variation to have multiple impacts. This feels like reporting on a war rather than a bunch of songs. Think the blunt trauma of bands like Benumb and old Agoraphobic Nosebleed mixed with a Swans/Sightings/Today Is The Day awareness of making the listener truly uncomfortable. The levels of noise that Crozier laces these tracks with is incredibly varied, sometimes combining his fetid touch to the end of guitar lines, at others taking over completely with a digital fog descending over the proceedings. See the 8-second The Ape for an instant example. Like being driven into by the business end of a shitty stick. Wade in with caution, these tracks seem contagious.

Zero Tolerance
Godhole’s self-titled double EP was one of the most impressive powerviolence/grind/noise debuts of recent times, and working with harsh noise artist Crozier hasn’t exactly calmed the Edinburgh trio down. Not surprisingly, this is even more aggressively dissonant than the EP, but like that work, what makes it so effective is Godhole’s ability to create a wall of sound that is emotionally affecting beyond the simple gut reaction of brain-scrambling fury. The noise element is all the more effective because it’s so seamlessly interwoven with the songs. These are short and apparently spontaneous, but never shapeless; for something so short and brutal (seven tracks in just over seven minutes) it touches a lot of bases; powerviolence, grind, noise, hardcore, even metal; this is extreme music that should appeal to fans across many subcultures. All of which makes Anthrophobia sound more accessible than it is. In fact, it’s hair-raising, brain-melting and electrifying stuff – but in the end it’s strangely moving too; a cathartic release that is absolutely what underground music is all about – and there’s even a sample of Hugh Laurie; win-win.