Various Artists "Hateful Bliss" (Filth and Violence / Untergeschoss - 2026) - this brand new co-release comp is a curious affair, featuring a small-ish cast of contributors, with some individuals double or even triple-dipping across its 10 tracks. "Hateful Bliss" is also notable for featuring pieces by projects that have been missing-in-action for a considerable length of time, though the lack of credits leaves it a mystery as to whether they're brand new works or (more likely) archival offerings.
1) Black State "Conflict" - this anonymous UK PE project has laid dormant since 2017's impressive "Hlose" album. I read somewhere on here that there were several people involved with BS and that one guy left, which essentially killed off the group, so unless they've since reconciled, I'm guessing this is an unreleased track from back in the day. It opens with one of their "trademark" samples of an old news report on racially-motivated mob violence, before kicking in proper with looped vocal wheeze over fried, droning electronics. The backing noise gradually gets louder and more chaotic, swallowing up the vocals in the process, until the piece finally craps out under its own weight.
2) Bizarre SS "Untitled" - the two full-length CDs from this killer duo of label bosses Pasi Markkula and Pekka PT concentrate on long-form and rather diverse noise works- this altogether more condensed affair consists of what sounds like heavily modified scraped junk metal fighting for breath as it's submerged in a dirty pool of bassy crud noise, whilst unnerving whines and exhalations skirt the edges of the soundscape.
3) Sick Seed "Stay Up Stockings" - on his own, Mr. PT offers up a more industrial-flavoured piece, in which juddering machine rhythms are overlaid with intermittent synth chirps and mostly indiscernible spoken vocals, presumably espousing the aesthetic wonder of female hosiery! These eventually drop out, leaving the ugly conjoined web of loops to lurch about like some overheating cyborg.
4) Moozzhead "Fett & Violins" - visually represented on one of the digipak panels by an image of a naked "BBW" holding a violin, this is a nicely busy and detailed track from Moozz, with small snippets of string sawing, garbled voices and microphone screech riding on thick, viscous waves of molten noise, the whole thing pitched somewhere between classic Macronympha and Merzbow in "Crash for High-Tide" mode.
5) Eleczema "Female Rat" - a.k.a. Toni Myöhänen of
STROM.ec and Stromstad. It seems like this project ended up more of a live spectacle than anything, its recorded work limited to just a handful of comp appearances and an apparently unfinished album- indeed, Mr. Aspa confirmed elsewhere that "Female Rat" is an unreleased track from said sessions. In any case, this is my first taste of Eleczema- a straightforward, but powerful blast of filthy PE, with distinct sections of feral vocal attack over a short feedback loop that sounds like a braying donkey sodomising a hyperactive chimpanzee, everything eventually crumpling into freeform chaos.
6) Shite Nazarene "Ounce of Lead" - the lone 2018 Shite Nazarene cassette on Wealth of Abuse was the work of Pasi and the fellas from Sump etc (Gaz Howells and George Proctor). GP seemed to distance himself from the whole F&V thing a good while back, so again, I would guess that "Ounce of Lead" is another unreleased oldie from the vaults rather than a brand spanking new track. Anyways, this consists mostly of grainy and mysterious tape loops, which run alongside assorted snatches of harsh, back-masked nastiness and down-pitched demon vox!
7) Unclean "Ravaging End" - MT's Unclean alias has been a bit quiet of late in favour of his Stinkfinger project. As enjoyable as that stuff is, here's hoping that the excellent "Ravaging End" is a sign that a new Unclean album is in the works too, the song's utterly deranged vocal delivery and scorched synth drone peppered by samples of the notorious Heaven's Gate cult.
8) Menacing '84 "Not Welcome" - this Gaz Howells solo project has been publicly inactive for even longer than Shite Nazarene, so yet again I suspect that this is something that he's dusted off from the vault. Whatever the case, "Not Welcome" carries that same dirty and obscure lo-fi vibe as on the M84 full-lengths, with percussive thumps, mic whistles and peals of agonized vocals echoing around the confines of some dark, dank rehearsal bunker.
9) Maskhead "Nasty Habits" - "Nasty Habits" is also the title of a great Nunsploitation movie box set put out by Severin, which I suppose explains the fetching picture of the "fisting sisters" inside the digipak! Not that the sonics necessarily reflect the title- indeed, if there are any naughty nun samples buried within this crackling, buzzing harsh noise assault, then they've been obliterated beyond all recognition! A brief interlude of acoustic metal tinkling offers a spot of respite, then it's straight back to the brutal noise battering for the remainder.
10) Snuff "Eerika's Daddy II" - a sequel to the closing piece from Snuff's 2015 opus "III". Much like in the original, Pasi and Pekka run a plundered musical performance- in this case a cheesy blues rock jam- through their arsenal of malfunctioning pedals and blown-out amps, the comp finally grinding to a halt via a heavily distorted snatch of slurred speech. To understand the significance of this unusual track (and its predecessor), see Manhog_84's excellent review of the limited edition "Eerika" CD-R here:
https://special-interests.net/forum/index.php?topic=544.msg115031#msg115031So, a strong and varied comp overall! Of course, only time will tell whether "Hateful Bliss" ends up as monumental as the "Nyrkki & Kyrpä" series- I for one am looking forward to finding out, though I dread to think what image will adorn the cover of the next volume if this one is anything to go by!
