There’s a kind of “fuck off” attitude conveyed by the name Pissboiler, a way of saying, this music isn’t your friend. It won’t buy you a beer, give you a hug, or kiss you on the neck. It also made me think the music might be crust or maybe grindcore. I was wrong about that latter guess, but not wrong about the first one.
I might have made a better guess about their new album, In the Lair of Lucid Nightmares, if I’d listened to this Swedish trio’s 2015 demo, but still not a completely accurate one, because there’ve been some changes in their sound since then. A better clue would have come from the 26-minute side of Pissboiler’s split release this year with Develkuth, a track aptly named “Monolith of Depression” (available here), but even that wouldn’t have been a complete forecast of the amalgam of funeral doom, drone, and sludge that lies in wait on the new album.
We have part of what lies in wait today, a track named “Cutters“, which will disturb your days between now and the album’s release on December 25 by Third I Rex. Christmas Day. These dudes clearly have a gallows sense of humor.
There’s an excerpt from an interview at the beginning of “Cutters“. A young woman describes resorting to cutting herself to get rid of all the pain and the incessant voices in her head, the bloodletting making her feel better. What follows is as grim as that interview excerpt, and even more relentlessly oppressive.
There is nary a drum to be heard on this long track. What rhythm exists comes from the pace of the deep, stupendously distorted chords, which is the rhythm of narcosis and the last gasping beats of a poisoned heart before death. Those long, droning chords rumble the guts and put an apocalyptically doomed feeling into the mind, driven deeper still by the echo of cavernous, inhuman roars and by shapeless forms of guitar torture that put your teeth on edge (and do summon images of a person cutting their own flesh).
In places the music pulsates like a wet, fleshy organ. Later, the chords change… rising and falling… very, very slowly. The uneasy trance is broken by truly horrific shrieks, increasingly anguished roars and howls of pain, and wisps of lead-guitar moaning. It is an unsparingly hopeless experience.
“Cutters” is an interesting, indeed a daring, choice for a first single from the album. More “accessible” choices could have been made from among the remaining tracks on the album. It seems almost like a test, or perhaps just this band honestly showing you what really lies deep down in the black wellspring of their creativity.
In the Lair of Lucid Nightmares was recorded, mixed, and mastered by Karl Jonas Wijk in Studio Gustafsberg. The artwork is by Ulf Nyhlin, with photography by Nicky Hellemans.
Below is the track list, useful links, and our premiere — along with a very disturbing video teaser for the album, which reprises the beginning of “Cutters”.
TRACK LIST:
1. Ruins Of The Past 17:45
2. Stealth 02:59
3. Pretend It Will End 10:02
4. Cutters 15:21
Pre-Order:
https://3rdirex.bandcamp.com/album/in-the-lair-of-lucid-nightmares-2
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/pissboiler/
2 Responses to “AN NCS PREMIERE: PISSBOILER — “CUTTERS””
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Eh, boiling piss is how we discovered phosphorus. Good name, very science-y.
Well, thank you for this new bit of knowledge. All hail Hennig Brand, and the now well-known recipe. (I’m lying, I didn’t know it.)
“How do you get phosphorus from urine? Boil the urine until it’s a “syrup.” Heat the syrup until a red oil comes out of it. Grab that oil! Let the rest cool. The substance will cool into two parts, a black upper part and a grainy lower part. Scrape off the lower part and throw it away. Mix the oil back into the black upper part. Heat that for about 16 hours. The oil will come back out, followed by phosphorus fumes. Channel the phosphorus into water to cool it down. Voila. Or you could just flush.”
https://io9.gizmodo.com/how-to-make-phosphorus-by-doing-disgusting-things-with-747234135