Stunned no. 22

Metal Rouge - Salt Stones cdr (Stunned no. 22) — out of stock —

It has been a longtime desire of ours to work with Andrew Scott & Helga Fassonaki of Metal Rouge, before Stunned was even a twinkle in our eye in fact. If there’s one thing we’re convinced of, it’s that these two are some of the most raw and intrepid aural magicians out there. And ‘Salt Stones’ is everything we could have hoped from them after years now of shaking in our shoes whenever they plug in around town for another anthem unto the heavier of heavenly bodies. Keeping in step with their no-bullshit, stripped-back live actions, here we encounter a merging of energies old and new as Andrew & Helga boost off from 90s NZ free noise styles, lending honorable nods to earth-quakers A Handful of Dust, Gate, and Dead C. But ample room is left for Metal Rouge’s own signature ear-splitting/life-affirming gamma rays. We’ve no choice but to rise higher than ever into the ultraviolet spectrum as Metal Rouge continue their liberated refinement, casting chunks of 6-string trance, extreme jazz vocals and black metal into the blistering, beautiful gas inferno of ‘Salt Stones’. Limited to 90 black cdrs in sari cloth lined vinyl case with transparent insert and flower.
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review:

"Before too long the proceedings drift into a slower and more minimal metallic slant. Electronic arpeggiations interweave with strums and gestures from Andrew as washes of fuzz coalesce with Helga's atmospheric vocal shudders. Soon the fuzz builds back as Helga's vocals subside. Slow and dizzy blues twangs and slides bend over one another while synthesized guitar insanity lurches on in the background. Blips and squelches emerge from the dust of the dense layer of fuzz which lies below all of the proceedings here, soon moving into bassier and more obtuse territory that nearly sounds like some monk chant stuff or something. That Metal Rouge are able to wield such heavy axes without losing any lushness or detail of activity is wonderful. Rather than pushing its listener into a dark cavern they merely seem to suggest a number of paths at any given moment, giving you the opportunity to peak down each of them before they choose one ... As the work crescendos over its length, it begins to merge more and more with its surroundings, seemingly melding with the very air in the room and just hovering, static and warmed by the friction of its minute vibrations. Small details begin to break off and make statement; feedback, cries, equipment battles, all add to its organic and fluid sound world ... Metal Rouge, clearly with a knack for finding the inner rhythms of a work and letting them unfold as they will, have released another great one with Salt Stones." - Ear Conditioned Nightmare