Back in 2022, Into the Pale Abyss made a big impression with their EP The Darkness Within. After releasing a handful of singles over the last two years, the Canadian duo are back with Murderwave, a new EP that leaves behind the mystical touches of their predecessor and its demonic rituals to get their hands dirty with the grime of 70s and 80s exploitation cinema. It's got the smell of thick film grain and bright red slimy blood, all in their own darksynth / techno / indus / EBSM sauce.
How, with such modern sounds, can you recapture the grimy atmosphere of the grindhouse horror films that were the joy of video clubs? Your Faith is Futile provides some of the answers: a contrast between the deep, menacing layers and the higher-pitched ones that build up the tension and, above all, a dirty sound evocative of damaged film blowing up during projection... The atmosphere is convincing. The minimalist bass line that John Carpenter is so fond of, the strident violins that spurt out like stab wounds in a shower... Horrors hooks us in with its super catchy rhythm section, then goes into overdrive, corrupting itself with a host of disgusting samples, including a chainsaw, which we then hear in the monumental bass. So there you have it: it's butchery, it's blood, it's stains, and the cries of suffering mingle with our primal pleasure, that visceral, jouissif thing: that's what we want!
Into the Pale Abyss has captured that special, grainy essence. The samples help, of course, but above all you're drawn in by the heaviness of the sound, by those big, menacing rhythms that beat like ripped-out hearts and to which you can refuse nothing. The discreet darksynth melodies of the title track and the more industrial ambience of Corrupted System, with its cyberpunk touches that smell of thick cables sizzling in the half-light, are further proof that the duo have a real talent for evocation, for titillating our imagination while bludgeoning our faces. The promise of an EP that knows how to be nasty without losing its sense of fun!
