Comity-The Deus Ex-Machina as a Forgotten Genius (Andy Warhol Sucks)
United Edge Records-UXE022-2004
By Josh Phillips
The Deus Ex-Machina as a Forgotten Genius (Andy Warhol Sucks), is not only an album whose title is going to draw attention, but whose music will really do the talking once the record is played. This album was originally released in France and now it has been re-released by United Edge Records overseas, and will hopefully reach a wider audience. It also contains two new tracks only available on this release. Though this album has its hardcore influences, put away your inhibitions, throw this on and give it an honest judgement, because the surprises contained herein should be enough to turn at least a few heads.
To get to the album, what a wickedly good and equally strange release this is. Really, it is difficult to put into words exactly what is going on here. The band uses a variety of different musical formulas, from brutal hardcore/metal to drifting ambient beauty with ringing, distant harmonies, the latter being where the band excel. This album reminds me of
Transmission0 in some ways, in that
Comity is also excellent at creating flowing soundscapes and blending them in with bursts of heavy music. These songs probably average about 10 minutes in length, with the entire release clocking in at over 70 minutes, an incredibly huge chunk of music, that surprisingly doesn’t grow dull, simply because the band is rather good at what they do. This is experimental stuff, throwing together brutal death growls with funky bass twanging, schizophrenic starts and stops weaving in and out of brutal attacks and into flowing ambient melodies.
If you liked
Transmission0 check this out and vice versa. This is an album full of suffocating atmosphere and biting brutality. Strange, all over the place, solid. Anyone familiar with United Edge Records' roster has some idea of what they're getting here, but take that and add quite a few less straight-forward, drifting pieces and you have
Comity's latest release. The first half is a little stronger than the second, but overall, it's a good album. This is what you would get if you crossed
Last Perfection with
Transmission0, and it works.
8/10
Official Comity Website
Official United Edge Records Website
