Primitive Knot: Feral Codex – Album Overview

Andy Brown opinions Feral Codex, the brand new album of business dread from Primitive Knot. He shares his ideas for Louder Than Conflict.

They are saying you shouldn’t choose a ebook by its cowl however album paintings can definitely provide you with some clues. Simply check out Feral Codex, the newest launch from one-man industrial steel machine Primitive Knot. The picture was pulled from an previous anarchist ‘zine whereas the format and basic low-res high quality remembers energy electronics provocateurs Ramleh. Add some music titles like Multidimensional Genocide Unit and the opportunity of an album stuffed with chart-troubling pop anthems turns into decidedly slim. Relaxation simple Sabrina, there’s no competitors right here.

Over 51 minutes, Chris Williams – the person behind the ski masks – delivers an obscenely noisy new album. Beneath his Primitive Knot guise, the prolific Manchester-based musician has created a powerful discography stuffed with Godflesh-worthy industrial steel but right here we’re offered with one thing fairly totally different. The weighty riffs and Huge Black-style drum machines have been melted down and distorted past all recognition. That is Primitive Knot in its primordial state. The sonic equal of William Harm in Altered States, when he lastly regresses into some screaming malformed entity.

We’re greeted by the excitement of harsh noise and a recording of an evangelical preacher raving about revelations and seven-headed beasts. “Dance/ Dance/ Dance”, Williams growls like some malfunctioning Cyberman as we’re step by step enveloped in a darkish wave of sinister synths and sluggish, doom-laden beats. There are not any riffs right here, only a wall of impenetrable dread. If Damien Thorn wanted a brand new soundtrack for 2025, then this is able to be it. Rumbling like a damaged speaker, Satanic Rights is not any much less intense. The beats are extra distinguished and the noise much more unforgiving. “Zero tolerance for the opposite,” he spits like some demonic authorities spokesman.

Even by Primitive Knot requirements, Multidimensional Genocide Unit is an indignant and unsettling monitor; opening – because it does – with a snippet of speech from a documentary on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The lyrics are ripe with disgust as they deal with a extra present atrocity, succinctly reflecting Trumps strategy to the horror unfolding in Gaza: “Genocide rebranded as company hostile takeover.” The title itself is a reference to an IDF job pressure. The music – as you may count on – feels suitably hellish: mangled vocals and chilly digital rhythms accompanied by an ominous, ever-constant hum.

The acquainted riffs aren’t right here however Feral Codex is arguably essentially the most brutal the undertaking has ever sounded. Black Tantra and Love In An Unholy Place channel The Bug/ Kevin Martin with unstoppable, heavyweight rhythms swathed in thick, oily layers of business noise. “Psionic warfare and PTSD” wails a voice from someplace deep contained in the abyss, “Occult options for the feral now.” Williams would little doubt say you shouldn’t learn an excessive amount of into the lyrics but even at their most esoteric, they feed into the albums oppressive tone.

Change Yr Self is constructed round an anxiety-inducing pulse whereas the stark Terminal Zone amplifies the unease. Pay attention on headphones and also you’ll really feel just like the you’re being swallowed complete by the hungry earth. The latter is definitely certainly one of my favorite tracks on the album, one thing to actually scare the neighbours with. With the typical monitor clocking in round six-minute mark, all the things is given enough time and area to actually get beneath your pores and skin.

Feral Codex is an undeniably excessive providing, largely forgoing any vital tonal shifts in favour of making an environment of sustained and unrelenting pressure. You’re not let off the hook for a single goddamn second. There are not any ambient interludes right here, no moments of reprieve. Riffs and music construction changed by a sea of pure digital terror. “Chunk the hand that feeds/ Feed the hand that bites” chants Williams because the title monitor pulls us into the guts of the machine. Lastly, The Glamour takes a wrecking ball to my ears with a powerful bombardment of beats and groaning noise.

Now, should you’re new to the Knot I wouldn’t essentially counsel you begin with this album because it abandons the signature riffs that had come to outline the undertaking. For a extra riff-orientated starter pack I’d counsel listening to Timeless Lands, A New Golgotha, Exit Methods and covers album Triumph of Deaf. Nevertheless, as a long-term fan – and I actually can’t stress this sufficient – it’s genuinely thrilling to listen to Williams rip up the floorboards like this. Put merely, Feral Codex takes a raffle and hits like an absolute atom bomb.

With one thing like 17 totally different initiatives beneath his belt, Williams has explored all the things from dungeon synth and thrash steel to sci-fi indebted electronica. This 12 months alone he’s launched an album and an EP of ribcage-rattling EBM as Daast and a remix album with Dave Padbury aka Salford Electronics. Regardless of this, Primitive Knot has typically saved industrial steel and riffs at its core. With this in thoughts, Feral Codex looks like an actual floor zero second for undertaking. What occurs subsequent is anybody’s guess, however that album of pop anthems remains to be trying fairly unlikely.

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You will discover Primitive Knot on Fb, Bluesky, Instagram and Bandcamp.

Hearken to Daast on Bandcamp right here.

All phrases by Andy Brown. You’ll be able to go to his creator profile and browse extra of his opinions for Louder Than Conflict HERE.