0 [From the Crates #12] Minsk - Out of a Center Which Is Neither Dead Nor Alive (2005)

Review by Matt Abramson

Minsk - Out of a Center Which Is Neither Dead Nor Alive
(2005 At a Loss Recordings)

Man. I wrote about wussy albums the last couple of weeks. Not that I got anything against the softer, more melancholy side of things... it's just that I'm still recovering from the fact that thanks to purple skinny jeans and retarded radio shit like 30 Seconds To Mars we've got a generation of total pussies on the horizon. I wish I could tie these fucking kids up and make 'em listen to some real shit like Smashing Pumpkins or Danzig, but I believe that is illegal for several reasons. Anyway...

This week I need bombast, and that bombast is Minsk. Every time I press play on this disc and the music begins, I think to myself. "This isn't as good as I remember... why did I think this shit was special?" Inevitably, I suddenly find myself somewhere in the vast ambiance framed by a heavily grooving downbeat that is "Holy Flower of the North Star" (the third track, mind you) and realize I have been deeply contemplating my life and the music for over ten minutes. I'm suddenly paralyzed until the album is over. I realize that Minsk have mastered the understated, hypnotic sensory overload with 'Out of a Center Which Is Neither Dead Nor Alive'.

Minsk falls somewhere around psychedelic doom metal on the mighty and infallible genre chart. The band who pioneered and remains the most famous of the "psychedelic" metal bands is Neurosis, and the comparisons to Minsk are pretty inevitable. But what Minsk does that Neurosis does not is achieve a dislocation of space and time through carefully articulated soundscapes instead of manipulation of audio samples and the like. It's way more organic and visceral, not to discredit or criticize Neurosis, who are totally fucking awesome, in any way, shape or form. "Narcotics and Dissecting Knives" begins with a phasing wind and eventually a noodling guitar, it is nearly three minutes before the song builds steam and unleashes a sludgy crescendo of angst. Yet even when Minsk is in full ass-kicking mode, the layering of elements onto the track remains thoughtful and complicated. What you initially thought was reverb turns out to be an entirely separate vocal track. A guitar lead, upon further listening, is really a cascade of intricately EQ'd overdubs. Suddenly, the fuzz massacred bass line filter sweeps into high frequencies and launches into space. You get it yet? This thing is a trip to listen to.

Finally, the snare drum. The snare drum sounds so fucking good I would compare it to Danny Carey's sound on Aenima. The snare holds the album together and the drumming is powerful, heavily grooving and as tastefully done as the other instruments on the album. Shit, "Wisp of Tow" even has some fucking horns on it, and if there's one thing the Melvins taught us it's that when you can kick ass with horns you've really got some shit going. Hats off to Minsk for such an ambitious and patient release. I have trouble telling where one track officially ends and the next begins, I feel like there is ten lifetimes’ worth of emotion crammed into sixty minutes. Do yourself a favor and listen to this one in the dark on some good headphones. This is not music for wussies. This is music to drop acid and dance naked smeared in animal blood in front of a bonfire deep in the woods under a full moon.