Pelagic Records can be counted on to bring us the very best in European heaviness and Love Sex Machine is no exception. Whether it’s the sonic brutality of LLNN or the wicked experimentation of Bipolar Architecture, Love Sex Machines pummelling third album sees them return eight years on from the release of 2014’s Asexual Anger to add to the Pelagic Records filth cauldron.
After reemerging eight years to a European sludge and post metal scene that is one of the most fertile lands for creativity in heavy music today where do Love Sex Machine sit amongst the plethora of top quality filth? Clocking in at a lean thirty six minutes this butchers slab of graphic sludge metal shows them lunging forward with feral intent from the opening notes of ‘Fucking Snakes’ which buzzsaws its way through tendons and flesh with minimal resistance to the rabid snarling of vocalist Yves siting deep in the belly of the mix to give a nightmarish undertone to every syllable. It’s the sound of a wounded mastodon over machinery built to flatten skyscrapers.
Not set on percolating within familiar genre tropes, which can lead to an album void of much identity. Tracks like ‘test26’ keep the album from becoming an indistinguishable sonic onslaught as it stands in the great halls of post-metal taking in some magnificent soundscapes littered with frantic synthesisers to help create some terrific unrest and even some momentary space to gather a quick breath or two. Album highlight ‘Autism Factor’ poises it riff on a knife edge before galloping forward into a little black metal giving us an idea of what a sludge metal Darkthrone would sound like. A little menacing spoken word before the central eruption of groove drenched riffs completes the perfection summation of Trve.
“It’s the sound of a wounded mastodon over machinery built to flatten skyscrapers”
Within the fortress of down-tempo grooves there is a radiant personality brimming with a febrile attitude. Vocalist Yves has a black metal quality to his snarl, it moves like a starving cobra throughout the tracks snapping and spraying venom at its most poignant moments. The words sitting beneath are fraught with a nihilistic humour. “call me captain cynic, I rule this dehumanised empire” is a mantra befitting an album laughing in the face mankind’s downfall.
Built in tandem with trusted producer Sanford Parker (Eyehategod, Yob) it retains the personality of the bands extensive years of experience without falling into copycat territory of the bands that birthed the genre. Together they take the riffs and grooves we’ve come to love and decorate the tracks with eerie refrains and atmosphere which only makes the engorging avalanche of noise so much more impactful.
Trimming the fat from predecessor Asexual Anger and adding a little pop sensibility gives Love Sex Machine a unique appeal to those curious about sludge metal and its like. If it has felt like a long and arduous task to sit through tracks heading towards six or seven minutes, listen to ‘Body Probe’ and you will know if the genre is for you. Pelagic Records is the perfect home for an album laced with such bile and such monstrous hypnosis.