#redefining darkness

[6rat6king6]

Average Tuesday night ig

[dustedmagazine]

Oxygen Destroyer — Sinister Monstrosities Spawned by the Unfathomable Ignorance of Humankind (Redefining Darkness Records)

Sinister Monstrosities Spawned By the Unfathomable Ignorance of Humankind by Oxygen Destroyer

Some of you already know (no need to raise hands), but: Oxygen Destroyer’s bandname refers to a fictional weapon deployed at the climax of Gojira (1954), a movie likely better known to readers of Dusted in its Americanized version, Godzilla, King of the Monsters! (1956, with the clunky, added-on scenes of Raymond Burr milling about and grimly delivering exposition). This reviewer knew, and he also knows that stringing together words like “Kaiju,” “thrash” and “death metal” will send many readers racing for the exits. Fair enough. The dork factor in that combination is pretty strong. But Sinister Monstrosities Spawned by the Unfathomable Ignorance of Humankind (a Kaiju-scaled title, to be sure) has a number of qualities that redeem it from the status of novelty act or winking prank. It knows exactly what it is: a record for folks who like thrashy death metal as much as they like classic horror movies about really, really big monsters. The songs? They hit an appealing sweet spot, between hotly enthused geekdom and ripping, snarling eruptions of noise. Sort of like a good Godzilla movie.

Sinister Monstrosities… is Oxygen Destroyer’s second LP, and the Seattle-based band has been releasing songs like “Summoning the Moth of Divinity” and “Vanquished by the Unrelenting Devastation of the Celestial Behemoth” over a run of splits and EPs since 2015. This new record presents a modest innovation, in that Oxygen Destroyer has moved beyond the Toho Studios canon to create songs based on British and American movies: The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953), The Giant Claw (1957) and Gorgo (1961). Sometimes the songs’ subjects are pretty clear, and sometimes it takes a particular sort of proficiency to recognize them. “Enduring the Maternal Rage of the Amphibious Monstrosity” doesn’t quite identify its titular “monstrosity,” but if you are familiar with the narrative of Gorgo, you can see the pissed-off mama beast coming from some distance away. She is certainly big enough. 

Some folks will hear only silliness, a superficial lite-ness in those musical antics, which might issue in summary judgment on Oxygen Destroyer. The source material doesn’t always help. As Toho Studios cranked out Godzilla movie after Godzilla movie, the proceedings got increasingly goofy: the pint-sized sirens in the Mothra movies, the appearance of Minilla in Son of Godzilla (1967) and Destroy All Monsters (1968) and so on. One answer to that ludicrousness is Oxygen Destroyer’s music, which is tightly written and executed, and bursting with aggressivity. The band glories in the excesses of Kaiju mythos, but the songs don’t play around. They’re loud, thrashy and excoriating. And we should recall that the culture that created Gojira, featuring a city-burning creature birthed by nuclear radiation, was fewer than ten years removed from the horrors of Hiroshima, and of Nagasaki. Unfathomable ignorance of humankind? The reverberations of the explosions of Fat Man and Little Boy are always embedded somewhere in Godzilla’s roar — and they’re somewhere in these songs, too. 

Jonathan Shaw

[kawaiichurchburner]

The Ghastly Silence - Shining

[svenson777]

SHINING “The Ghastly Silence” (Album: Redefining Darkness, 2012)

[elytrid]

Song of the day for 6/5/17: Shining- Han Som Hatar Människan

[elytrid]

Song of the day for 4/27/17: Shining- For The God Below I was hoping this album would show up at some point. I really enjoy it and it seems really unique. In addition to being much more beautiful than I would expect for most black metal, it has some really killer solos.

[mfhunter]

BURIAL OATH!

[dresmire]

Hail Darkness Hail - Shining 

...the void awaits in silence The majestic nothingness, I submit to thee Nothing can come between us, Not a single ray of light All hail the darkness, Et spiritus sancti