Brain Tourniquet Sinking Deeper Into Madness
- Format
12 Inch
Black
£18.00
The latest slab from Brain Tourniquet, Sinking Deeper Into Madness, is now available for pre-order. Our estimated shipping date is Friday 16th October.
‘Wake up cold as ice, Beathing, not alive, Deprived of sensation, Never could be trusted, They know what’s best for me’ (Best For Me)
Stilted 1950s’ educational voice overs. Savagely whiplash stop-start rhythms. Powerviolence fuelled hardcore that promotes bludgeoning velocity over speed alone and yet draws on a rich tapestry of influences. Brain Tourniquet are back with second full-length and follow-up to 2023’s …An Expression In Pain.
Sinking Deeper Into Madness tells the story of a lobotomy – the regret, the fear, the pain. Despite widespread opposition among neurosurgeons, this now discredited practise (whereby mental illness is treated by severing brain connections) became widely popularised between the 1940s and 1970s. Its rise was a function of a preoccupation with productivity rather than patient welfare and is now subject to severe legal restrictions.
It is an album that is defined by the tensions that shape it. Blast beat eruptions wrestle with monolithic industrial rhythms, shimmering cymbals deftly dancing amid the brutality. The ominously lumbering bass jousts with cleaner, tautly lean guitar, which itself segues from jazz-tinged wah-wah to thrashing ferocity. The vocals a guttural growl but one that is readily legible as it guides us through the horror.
The trio are deeply rooted in the Washington DC hardcore scene. The breadth of this experience – Laughing Corpse and Red Death by way of Genocide Pact and Truth Cult to name but a few – vividly colours the onslaught. The clanking intensity and whispered menace of Concentrate contrasts with the swaggering bass lines and blast beats of Eyes Wide Open and the jagged melodicism of This Is Forever with the funky grooves of Can You Call This A Life?
And then after being pummelled into submission by nine, venomously crafted 60 second eruptions, the album ends of with a cover of The Beatles’ Tomorrow Never Knows – a languidly spaced out, six-minute psychedelia fuelled wig out as a human mind finally dissolves.
Iron Lung Records has long been fans of the concept album, especially in the punk context. When you have something to say and you take your time to say it, the message sinks in a lot deeper. BRAIN TOURNIQUET has made a crushing and harshly heavy example of this ethos with serious mental health commentary. While powerviolence/hardcore/punk influence of Crossed Out, Man Is The Bastard, and Mind Eraser are at its core, ‘Sinking Deeper Into Madness’, the band’s second album, also incorporas heavy doses of Swans’ bleakness, personal actualizations from outdated self-help tapes, and boundary pushing sonics from 70’s prog.
‘Sinking Deeper Into Madness’ tells the story of an unnamed protagonist whose family urges him to get a lobotomy after experiencing a manic episode. The protagonist ultimately decides to go through with the procedure and experiences extreme bouts of joy, fear, regret, and remorse until his mind ultimately disintegrates into total emptiness.
200 copies on opaque yellow, 500 copies on black 140gr vinyl housed in a 24pt reverse board jacket with insert included. Recorded, mixed, and mastered by Matthew Michel with additional tracking by Louis Hardy. Art by M.B.
FFO: Crossed Out, Mind Eraser, Swans, Man Is The Bastard
– Iron Lung Records
