thedowngoing are a two-man band from Sydney, Australia. Their new EP is entitled ATHOUSANDYEARSOFDARKNESS. Obviously, they have no patience or use for spaces. Spaces would only interrupt the run-on pile-up of letters. There are also few spaces in the band’s music. Spaces would only interrupt the run-on pile-up of noize and unhinged vocalization that erupts from the album like sulfuric acid and brimstone spewing from a high-pressure firehose.

I first heard about this band as a result of a 2011 year-end list by Alex Layzell (Grind To Death) that we posted last December (here). In that article, Alex was singing the praises of thedowngoing’s Untitled EP. More recently, he’s been singing the praises of ATHOUSANDYEARSOFDARKNESS, so I decided I should check it out.

It doesn’t take long — 12 songs run roughshod through your skull in almost exactly 10 minutes, leaving a smoking wreckage of pulp in place of what used to be your brain.

The stringed instruments are so distorted that they sound like a combination of industrial-strength sandblasters and the ongoing explosion of an overloaded transformer. The drumming bolts from recognizable rhythms to sheer off-the-hook mayhem, one freaked-out detonation of percussion after another. The vocals are as utterly and completely deranged as any I’ve ever heard, with high-pitched shrieking that could not possibly leave any normal set of vocal chords intact and gruesome growls that would frighten bears. Continue reading »