Review Summary: Malignant intent.
Even with a genre as in your face as harsh noise, there’s a filthy underbelly that holds nothing back. Releases like this ooze of gore and a brutal, disturbing atmosphere. For me, it feels refreshing for a subgenre all about pushing boundaries not feeling over the top in the slightest.
For a lot of harsh noise artists, they tend to have hundreds of releases. While Macronympha is the same, I don’t see much topping the best Intensive Care has to offer. But let’s go from the start. Fucking My Nurse in the Dark (After She Gives Me the Morphine Shot) is a 23 minute track that focuses on cut up noise. It’s brutal, varied, and is pretty engaging for aimless noise. Most of the time there’s a muffler effect, which I do appreciate for my hearing. Flesh Eating Bacteria is more of the same, but takes interesting turns. The first 46 minutes are crushing, but not where the best tracks are.
Polygamic Cyst builds up anxiety in the sheer unending violence of it all. Multiple layers of harsh noise and sound effects assault the listener. There is no rhythm, no breaks. 14 minutes of very good, brute force harsh noise. It ends on a strange twist and suddenly ends. It builds up for the final track quite well.
And now onto Ruptured Spleen, the track everything has been building up to. It's brutal, evil, and unnerving. It starts with a distorted sample of a person talking of how effective cyanide poisoning is, and transitions into a very grim atmosphere. The sound collage is used to greater effect than before, and the background consists of droning noise. It’s very dissonant and feels like you're trapped in an industrial factory. This is harsh noise at its best.
Intensive Care is a great example of harsh noise being used effectively. It's chaotic and aimless, yet can delve into morbidity at the drop of a hat. There’s clear progression and never feels like a slog. Ideas are never played out for too long, and unlike a lot of albums there’s not much filler. This is one of those albums that listening to it all the way through will give you the best experience.
Recommended Tracks: Ruptured Spleen, Polygamic Cyst, Flesh Eating Bacteria.
