Year: 2025
Label: Zoharum

You know the old Lovecraftian couplet, “That is not dead which can eternal lie/And with strange aeons even death may die”? Stephen Ah Burroughs of Tunnels Of Ah fame apparently does, or at least proves its veracity. For, in these strange times we live in, he has resurrected his industrial projects from the early 80’s, Comicide 24.

Comicide 24 never released anything in their day, and up until now their only release is a posthumous live tape (under the name Comicide). Their indirect legacy is more lasting, though: Comicide 24 morphed into Head Of David, who released a number of albums. Head Of David in turn, perhaps even more remarkably, gave one-time member J.K. Broadrick the impetus to start industrial metal pioneers Godflesh.

But all of the above is pretty incidental for the album at hand. There are no echoes of continuations or offshoots here. No rock or metal elements, which both Head Of David and Godflesh incorporated into their sound. No, Chronic Transfusion, Comicide 24’s first album, is very old school industrial.

By old school I mean that pigeonholing Chronic Transfusion more specifically can prove hard. By and large, this is the kind of abstract, experimental electronics that harks back to times before industrial noise offshoots such as harsh noise and power electronics were a thing. The album never gets too brutal, harsh or extreme. Relatively speaking, again: for the average music listener, this kind of non-musical abstract electronics will likely be a rather extreme experience to sit through.

In Chronic Transfusion’s case, “old school” takes the form of understated, sparse layers of looping, slowly modulating layers of synthesizers, feedback and such. Most of the tracks revolve around one idea, one or two layers of sound that slowly morph, mutate and evolve. Subtle nuances appear and disappear, and in the background, additional layers of sound may be introduced but rarely in a capacity that steal focus.

I’ll be honest with ya. Chronic Transfusion can be extremely grating. Take for example opening track Transfusion: from start until end, there’s this short, jarring loop of buzzing electronics. Additional layers of sound do appear, but for the entire seven and a half minutes the track lasts, this layer is front and center. It gets very, very annoying very, very quickly. Same goes for the last track on the album, Chronic Transmission. Very early on, something that sounds like a broken buzzer is introduced, and it’s buzzing drone remains the one constant in the track. Nerve shattering.

I suppose it goes without saying, considering the genre, but Chronic Transfusion is one of those albums that requires a special kind of listener to get something out of it. Its understated sparseness of arrangement, its grating loops and its almost complete lack of things to easily latch on to – melody, vocals, blinding brutality – makes this a tough nut to crack. And, for me, the wrong type of nut. Were it not for review duties, I would most likely not have sat through this album more than once.

Which is not to say Chronic Transfusion is a bad album. It’s not my cup of tea, but I’m quite sure people more into this kind of old school industrial experimentalism will find much of interest on the album. To reiterate, it’s a demanding album that requires a special kind of listener. So approach with care.

Comicide 24 don’t have a website, but visit Zoharum’s website or Tunnels Of Ah’s Bandcamp for more information