Self-Inflicted Oppression Deadly Apples - 2008
Sometimes the noise in my own head gets so damn loud, the only thing that can make it quiet is even more noise. And thank god for tracks like Self-Inflicted Oppression. Just unrefined power, noise, tempo and brutality presented as a declaration more than a musical composition. Self-Inflicted Oppression has raw aggression surging from every direction. No matter where you turn in this song, there is no sanctuary. No peace. It’s all encompassing and enveloping.
When something gets this loud and cacophonic, with noise being the main contributor to the music, I feel a wave of calm come over me. I slow down and try to pick out individual movements and feel that in its entirety. The guitars repeatedly vying to be the rhythm setter of the song while the drums are going nah, I am the tempo setter. That tension between the two adds layers of discovery inside something so savage. And the singing is beyond distorted, so the only part of the song that should be a safe place to hold onto and feel, I know this, this is familiar, has been tainted. Pandemonium is the only place you get to occupy while this is playing.
Self-Inflicted Oppression is a tempo filled lesson in dissonance. Rumbling and crashing repeatedly in sonic bricks to the skull. With a voice cracking to the point of breaking mid-song. Only to be masked behind so many warped layers of distortion that it’s just a throwaway. It doesn’t matter that the voice breaks. The rage, the noise, the overwhelming intensity. All of it together. Grants me serenity. Slows the noise down inside my own head. To be replaced by something even louder. Even if just for a moment.