ALBUM REVIEW: The Cessation Of Suffering – Gnaw Their Tongues

Since the last GNAW THEIR TONGUES album I Speak The Truth, Yet With Every Word Uttered, Thousands Die, there has been a global plague with which the world changed forever. But now as things are seemingly back to whatever normal is these days and there is some semblance of calm, the band are back with The Cessation Of Suffering to destroy that calm and spread their evil noise and sonic terrorism like a plague once again.

When it comes to nasty and vicious music, there aren’t many bands around that can hold a candle to GNAW THEIR TONGUES and this album proves that once again as it just exudes raw hatred and the way it is done so relentlessly is breathtaking to hear. With such a prolific catalogue of music, the band’s main-man and multi-instrumentalist Maurice de Jong – aka Mories – had a hard task for this tenth album (and so many other releases as well) in terms of how the music of GNAW THEIR TONGUES can maintain such a relentless hatefulness, but here he has done it with style and ease and the results are possibly the band’s bleakest record to date – which really is saying something.

From beginning to end, The Cessation Of Suffering creates an intimidating atmosphere with its headfuckingly nightmarish combination of harsh noise and similarly harsh electronic flourishes complete with horrific vocal effects and the results are captivating in a completely haunting manner with the sonic killing fields of GNAW THEIR TONGUES embraced in full. Tracks like Salvation Body, Vengeful Spit and especially the utterly crushing (and perfectly titled) The Departure Of Light perfectly encapsulate the horror of the band’s music as all ten tracks on the album work together to create a truly brutal soundscape.

Mories knows exactly which buttons to push when it comes to sonic extremity and The Cessation Of Suffering as a whole is a perfect example of that. This is an album that doesn’t mess about and is the sonic equivalent of a nightmare come true. It feels like the soundtrack to the chaos that engulfs the world on a daily basis and it truly sounds like hell closing in on itself in the best way possible, with that uncomfortably menacing vibe abounding constantly.

This is an undeniably uneasy listening experience to the ultimate degree but if you can handle it and if you let the pain, anger and the harsh nature of GNAW THEIR TONGUES consume you, then you can take comfort in the cathartic nature of this utterly visceral and hostile noise. So take a walk on the dark side of life with The Cessation Of Suffering and see if you can make it out the other side.

Rating: 8/10

The Cessation Of Suffering is set for release on November 24th via Consouling Sounds.

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