Over the past handful of years, there’s been a resurgence in death metal, for better or worse. As with any popularity or proliferation, the majority of it has sucked. Stunk to high Heaven, it has. But amid the rubble, strong flowers grow, and there are a good many (BEDSORE, DIPYGUS, DAWN OF OROBOUROS, etc) that are thriving. Well, the same thing’s been happening in noise rock for about as long, but the genre (which, like true doom,) doesn’t lend itself to popularity either due to subject matter or sonics and thus has remained underground.

Connecticut’s INTERCOURSE, now four albums and a bunch of EPs deep, returns with How I Fell In Love With The Void, their first for long-running Brutal Panda Records. ‘The Ballad Of Max Wright’ heaves, bristling with a RUE , and yet, a KYLESA sense of melody pervades. A word on Tarek Ahmed’s vocals at the start; I’ve always felt he sounded like the bastard offspring of Tesco Vee and P. W. Long, and the extra dollars and time the band spent on HIFILWTV pay off here most immediately, every syllable enunciated clearly on ‘Another Song About The Sun’, and throughout. You can hear his gurgling self-deprecation, his phlegm-coated contempt in ‘Zoloft And Blow’, Sean Prior’s guitar either double-tracked or just pissed off enough to carry the weight of two. Rarely has a failed relationship sounded as utterly unsalvageable as here.

The dreadful soundscape of ‘Slightly Less Than I Feeling’ gets obliter-fucking-ated by ‘Cadaver Resume’, like – (16) – in stream of consciousness mode, a Jackson Pollock painting gone madness-era Goya. By far the longest song here, ‘Running A Cemetery Without A License’ is ominous, exuding malice and has the time to cover those feelings and more, yet another testament to the worth of the extra funds and time spent on the album.

Closer ‘Family Suicide Gun’ and its stomach-heaving rhythms courtesy of the Stroczkowski / Porter duo makes you realize just how important the bass and drums are to noise rock, and thankful that these two are masters of the art of giving a fuck without sounding like they give a fuck. Like death metal, noise rock of this sort is going through a boom. Bands like EYES, BRIGHT SUNSHINE, and INTERCOURSE will be there when the smoke clears. And that’s how I fell in love with How I Fell In Love With The Void.
Review By: Lord Randall

INTERCOURSE
How I Fell In Love With The Void
Brutal Panda Records