Review Summary: They're still extreme, they still make noise, and they still like inciting terror. They're still Extreme Noise Terror at heart.
Despite being widely regarded as one of the core influences on various extreme metal sub-genres, Extreme Noise Terror have been grinding their way through three and a half decades with no ambition or desire for mainstream popularity. It's what all the best extreme metal bands strive for-to be as far removed from tags such as "popular", "famous" or "renowned" as possible. That's essentially why ENT are and always will be a band that truly defines cult status. They were never quite the best hardcore punk act, never tried to be Napalm Death or Brutal Truth, and certainly didn't want to be implanted into the minds of many confused, depressive, spiteful, self-hating, nihilistic metalheads all over the world. Extreme Noise Terror just wanted to make you suffer a series of 30 minute listening sessions so that, if the job was done right, you'd be forever hating everything that wasn't supposed to be hated, whilst your ears bled and your mouth was dry from trying to encapsulate just what made frontman Dean Jones' gargled vocal effects so inhuman.
But enough of that.
We should really be talking about the latest Extreme Noise Terror effort, which is self-titled and has been out for nigh on two months. At 26 minutes it is the second shortest full-length effort from the band and is the seven-year follow-up to previous album
Law of Retaliation, EPs and splits notwithstanding. Is it any different than what ENT have been doing for the past 30 years? Of course not, and why should it be? What exactly is wrong with what ENT are doing at the moment? Their latest effort simply suggests that if you do like it, like it some more, and if you don't, f*** off essentially. But seriously, from start to finish,
Extreme Noise Terror never stops being malevolent, menacing, spiteful and egregious, or at least until you stop the recording out of disgust rather than boredom. The guitar work is heavy and vitriolic ("Punk Rock Patrol", "An Endless Cycle of Misery", "Cage Paralysis"), the vocal delivery is almost inhuman and wild beyond control ("I Like Coca", "Cruel and Unusual Punishment", "Last Fix of Fame"), and there's even a song which is notably slower than everything else on the album: "Dogma, Intolerance and Control", which is the longest song on the album by a minute's difference.
What Extreme Noise Terror have done with this album is merely reflect on what worked on their best efforts in the past. Nothing else. That's perhaps why the aforementioned songs sound as gritty, raw-edged and strenuous as they do belligerent and uncontrolled. The band are simply doing what works for them and saying "F*** everyone else" for 26 minutes. ENT simply don't care about reviews like this or interviews with the media that think they know better-they never did. The only thing they probably do care about is what the next album will be called, and whether or not it can be faster and heavier than this, their self-titled 2015 effort. Let's hope it doesn't take quite as long as seven years to get done then.
