I didn't expect to like the Prurient Genocide Organ collaboration as much as I do. Expectations were low seeing Dominick's output the last few years, but it's solid. Far removed from a blackened full-force blowout one might expect seeing those names, and I didn't expect such an nuanced work, but it works. Maybe one could expect this approach looking back at Casablanca Flamethrower, which feels in the same lineage of this album, but this Carte Blanche feels more balanced and to the point. I'm glad for that, Casablanca Flamethrower surely has good moments but I really dislike the 2+ hour album approach when half of it is filled with mediocre ambient and synth noodling.
Yeah, I think I like this album. It's like the things I dislike about Prurient (albums that overstate their lenght and become boring) and Genocide Organ (flanging warbly synthesized vocal effects) are solved, yet I also feel it could be much more. They are holding back A LOT. We could have more darkness, more claustrophobia, more angst, more power, more dominance, heavier feeling of obliteration, total sickness and disgust. They have done in the past, they can do now. But this isn't that. It's a solid album, but it's not the beast you might expect it to be.
You know how it feels like? Like an 40-year old man in a trustable second-hand brown-striped suit digging up dirt in the middle of the street, unbothered by the looks of bystanders, occasionally barking when one is getting to close, yet still being an 40-year old in a suit.
