The Body

Apocalyptic, experimental noisemongers the Body consistently challenge themselves to make music darker, weirder, denser and increasingly desolate. Their latest offering, Christs, Redeemers, continues this noble work of sonic perversion. The duo (composed of Chip King and Lee Buford) attempt to compose a soundtrack to the biblical Rapture, something that is at once transcendent and torturous. Collaborating again with frequent co-conspirators Assembly of Light, beautiful choral vocals are frequently interwoven with anguished screams and the elemental creating of a shattered landscape. While the Body are experts at playing with aural textures and layers, the decadent variety of sounds on Christs, Redeemers is next level, even for them. From thick, steel wool walls of electronic feedback and black metal buzzing to fleshy membranes of fractured percussion and splitting guitar tones, as well as diaphanous sheets of vocals that are occasionally pierced with agonized cries, the intricacy and intelligence of the way the sounds are layered is an exceptional achievement. Listening to "To Attempt Openness" is world-rending enough to tear a little hole into reality and let a bit of the apocalypse leak through.