Review Summary: Maybe you should kill yourself.
Have you ever looked at someone or something with pure hate in your eyes? And felt nothing more than pure, murderous intent? It's an intense, indescribable feeling. Suppressed rage. Your body longing to lash out, to strike this object or being down, to rip it apart, to ***ing piss on it. It's vastly different than slow, burning anger. It's concentrated, unnerving, hate. I have no doubt in my mind that every member of both of the bands on this split have felt this. Considering the original pressing of this 7" record came with a razor blade (and some special copies with a band-aid), I wouldn't say that these bands potentially like you. It's safe to say that the ten minutes of music here reflects those feelings. What is contained here is ten minutes of a concentrated release of anger, hate, hopelessness, frustration, and every other emotion you wish to release.
As soon as Usurp Synapse's side starts: chaos. There is no better way to describe it than this. I could tell you that the drummer plays hyper-speed blast beats, the guitarists violently wail on dissonant riffs, and the vocalist hoarsely screams with a distorted, evil voice, but none of that portrays a more accurate image of the music than "chaos". This is because the music is not controlled. It is unprofessional, it is harsh. It is human. The greatest thing about this split is that this quality is omnipresent. Even when Usurp Synapse throws in an unrelated sample (as they often do), they go straight back into the chaos. And even with the music being so violent and unrelenting in its nature, there is a fantastic use of dynamics. Most noticeably so on Usurp Synapse's last track, where the majority of the song is looming and more slow-moving than usual, before all the instruments cut out into an eerie synth chord, which leads into the most intense moment on the split yet, and probably the most violent breakdown I have ever heard. Fittingly, they cut it off there.
Once the Hassan I Sabbah side of the split starts, there is a noticeable decrease in production quality, (not that the Usurp side was crystal clear or anything.) Their first song is a bit forgiving, ending with a melodic section reminiscent of many similar sections that bands like Saetia had, but with lyrics like "cut its belly right open", the underlying themes are still there. The music remains equally intense, and equally affecting. The last song on the split "A Horse Never Goes Heartless" is easily one of the noisiest, and tantrum inducing songs in any style deviating from "punk" that I have ever heard. Ear piercing feedback, fast-paced riffing, drums banging, and rabid screaming, goes into a cathartic build-up that leads into the most intense moment on the split, and something that is truly indescribable for me. I think the best, and maybe the only way, is to see footage of them playing this part live. As soon as the build-up reaches its peak, instruments fly, the band members look as if having a seizure (fittingly they have a demo version of this song entitled "Epilepsy as a Performance Art"), and almost immediately things are broken. It's hard to hear this climax without imagining things being broken. This climactic segment never really ends, and instead goes directly into a segment that can be described as a "calm after the storm", only without the "calm" part. Bodies are on the floor, basement support beams are broken, there is distant screaming, and of course, high-pitched guitar feedback. And that's where it ends, as abruptly as it starts.
Ten minutes of turmoil in your ears, and then plenty of time to figure out what hit you.
