Year: 2026
Label: Zoharum

Do you ever get migraines or really bad headaches? Do you ever feel a pain in your head that feels like someone inside is drilling your skull and brains with a power drill? A kind of jarring pain that grinds and grinds and never seems to change?

Then you know what Nothing Changes The Narrative feels like.

Nothing Changes The Narrative is Polish Dystopian Control’s debut album. It offers 33 minutes of vicious and thoroughly hostile harsh noise. Really: this is the kind of music you just don’t enjoy – period. It’s full of hostile layers of absolute noise that assault the listener with the intent of causing pain.

To allude to the introduction, it sounds like a drill to the skull. The main sonic element of most tracks is this nasty, jarring and grinding mid-frequency electric noise that isn’t either high or low, but stuck in an unpleasant kind of mid-range. Sometimes this drilling sound changes to a slower, equally hostile jackhammer rhythm. These are laced with shrill, piercing feedback layers and the occasional burst of lower frequencies.

The compositions are characterised by abrupt changes and split-second jumps from blaring noise to silence, and back. There’s a definite cut-up nature to the music, where there are no segues from calmer sections to noisy sections. Everything happens in the blink of an eye, making Nothing Changes The Narrative a rather jarring listening experience. A bit like a scratched CD that gets stuck.

All of the above is standard fare for harsh noise. However, Dystopian Control differ from the mass in the clear, crisp and ultra-digital sound they present their noise in. Nothing Changes The Narrative sounds absolutely clean and even sterile. Every layer of caked dirt, rust and grime has been removed. Dystopian Control’s production is sterile and sharp like a surgeon’s knife.

The end result is painful. Increasing the volume, Nothing Changes The Narrative really hurts. Not the ears, mind you. It hurts somewhere behind the eyes, in the temples, and in the nape of the neck. But at the same time, at least for my preferences, it is too clean and shiny. It sounds very, very digital. I know this isn’t off-putting for everyone, but I much prefer my harsh noise with layers of analogue grime on it.

I admit, I’m much more of a power electronics guy than a harsh noise guy. But I don’t mind a bit of absolute noise cacophony from time to time. And whilst I appreciate how hostile and abrasive Dystopian Control get in all their crystal clear sharpness, I want a bit of dried body fluids, a bit of caked dirt and massive layers of rust on my harsh noise. This simply sounds too clean, too digital, too non-analogue for me.

But to each their own, right?

Visit Dystopian Control on Bandcamp