Imagine if you will a catastrophic nuclear- esque meltdown close to a venue where  Faith no More, Brutal Juice, Nailbomb, Ministry, Jucifer and Neurosis might be playing (quite the diverse lineup, right. Where can I get tickets?) then try to visualize a malformed creature, dripping in gore and goo, howling in torment as it crawls out from the resulting sludge. A mutant, an aberation, some might even think a super creation, perhaps not (for this is a music review not a pondering diatribe on a Marvel or a DC cinematic opus) but the result (if the creature had a penchant to create music) might be something akin to the output of Coilguns. It isn’t pretty, in fact it’s shudderingly repulsive at times but strangely it has an allure much like the vivid, retina scalding, visual of a high speed highway collison that blocks every lane of traffic. Coilguns style is in instances ground quaking and near apocalyptic in its intensity but in others more akin to that of a soundtrack, albeit blunt in its approach. Spectrogram is one such track and especially suited for a ‘slow burn’ science fiction feature where something menacing lurks, growing, seething, waiting for an opportune moment, beneath the thin veneer of supposed normalcy.

The album isn’t without tracks that sound almost familiar, for perhaps a flash of a second at least. This is the case in Music Circus Clown Care that is until it fizzles into an abrupt finale that may well leave the listener hitting rewind repeatedly in abject confusion. Other tracks, Blackboxing being the prime example, appear more as celebrations of musical anarchy, odd for sure but still utterly listenable.

The album climaxes with The Screening. It has a style which might have the listener thinking they are privy to classified audio, conversations hidden from the general public in secret vaults. It’s accompanying percussion is thunderous and builds in intensity as the vocals transform from an everyday cadence to that of a person suffering from abrupt bone splitting agony. An overall effect I believe would befit a transformation scene in a lycantrophy based genre feature to a tee, move over Blue Moon.

Standout tracks include the opener Anchorite, Millennials and Me’nie’res although the album as a whole has an odd hypnotic quality that enthralls, the ritualistic drum tattoo certainly helps in this regard.

No matter how you slice it the album stands out as a release that’s painfully hard to place in any one catagorization. In fact it’s an album that potential listeners will either love or hate with a burning passion. No matter the preference Coilguns have crafted a collection of tunes that are wildly non conforming, unique though still strangely familiar and deserved of, at least, discovery. Personally I can’t stop hitting repeat, the album somehow manages to scratch the itch and hit the spot (not the G spot, whatever that might be) that many releases of similar ilk have missed, some by a mile, others narrowly.

Siffice it to say if you’re in the mood for an aural assault that isnt death, hardcore or black metal but is potentially riot inciting give this a spin. You can thank me later, or alternatively toss me some mail asking what the hell it was that I was thinking.

Your slave to audio extreme, obscure and otherwise ignored by the sheeps in the mainstream marketplace.

Cult.