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ART OF BURNING WATER LISTEN TO THIS RELEASE VIA BANDCAMP BELOW
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LIMITED EDITION 200 ONLY BLACK VINYL LP WITH DOWNLOAD CODE. SPLIT LABEL RELEASE WITH SUPER FI & SWARM OF NAILS
LP Tracklisting
A1. You Won't Know Till You've Cried
A2. It Didn't Get Any Better
A3. Lacerations To Hands And Faith
A4. Way Of Bastard
B1. We Failed
B2. Since His Collapse
B3. The Live You Live
B4. Way Of Snake
ORDER VIA THE WEBSHOP OR BANDCAMP SITE (IF STILL AVAILABLE) Release Info: Art Of Burning Water were born out of the ‘white flats’ of Hanwell (W7) and the pre-gentrified homes of Hammersmith (W6) in West London in 2001. The sound of suburban alienation and misfit isolation forged an awkward visceral sound that was too punk for the metallers, too noisy for the arthouse crowd and too weird for seemingly everyone else. AOBW continue to plough their own furrow despite personal injury and often chronic disorganisation. with self-promotion taking a back seat to the importance of sound creation to combat the often ugly hardships of everyday living. Like Slayer gone sludge, AOBW channel the prime noise-rock of vintage Zeni Geva and Godflesh with the more complex rhythmical riff obsessions of the Melvins, Keelhaul and mid-period Voivod. In saying that however, AOBW also adhere to the original punk philosophy of ‘anything goes’. There are no restrictions. Punk isn’t about Discharge (as good as they were and are), studded belts and crusty bum flaps. Punk is the heart to tell the narrow minded to get fucked. “This Disgrace”
continues the more spontaneous writing approach of third album “Love You
Dead” with some emotionally draining dirge sections akin to a more
budget “Children Of God”-era Swans, “What’s This For?” period Killing
Joke as well as the “Souls At Zero” beatings of Neurosis. All subject to
opinion of course. REVIEWS
"Angular,
sneery fuckers from Lahndahn town, The Art Of Burning Water
have been toiling away for a decade or thereabouts.
Occasionally they delivering fragmented transmissions of
their Noise Rock-inspired metallic bludgeon when you least
expect it from whatever bunker/dungeon/borstal they spend
their time locked away in. They’ve worked in near obscurity
for most of their existence. Which, to be fair, has worked
in their favor – or perhaps in your favor if you’re hearing
them for the first time here – as that self-same, almost
hermetic approach has allowed them to fine tune their
assault in their own sweet time. “This Disgrace” is album
number four, and their strongest offering yet. With eight
tracks in under half an hour, it strolls in, batters you and
fucks off in the blink of an eye. There’s not a tremendous
amount of fat on these bones, and they’ve finally delivered
the lean,mean killing machine they’ve promised to for years.
AOBW have the brain to brawn ratio bang on. The caveman
ferocity in the riffing is welded to a super tight and
musically articulate rhythm section for one thing, and the
songs are designed to satisfy the ears and the gut in equal
measure. AOBW do not simply flail around without giving the
listener something to latch on to – just check out the
surprisingly catchy “We Failed” for one, and note how it
never sacrifices brute force even at the most melodic points
(although “melodic” is a relative term here). “Lacerations
To Hands And Faith” changes tone from a swift act to
violence to a lurching dread, offering up a killer
headbanging riff in the process that would make the likes of
Old Man Gloom drool. That band are actually a handy enough
comparison if, heaven forfend, you might be looking for one.
The same slightly leftfield approach to heroically brutal
guitar sludge, the same occasional indulgence in samples and
noise – though AOBW reign that tendency in unless absolutely
necessary. In the glorious Sleep meets Steel Pole Bathtub
melee of “Since His Collapse”, they emit the same psychotic
glee that the Hydra Head super group exude at their best.
Overall however the comparison is more in approach than in
sonics – and AOBW are very much their own men. Is this Metal
Ireland material? Yeah. Fuck yeah, this sounds like metal to
me – it’s the kind of music we should be classing under the
“sludge” heading rather than mongos with Matamps singing
about dragons and bongs. Nowt wrong with that at all, don’t
get me wrong, but this is a more mischievous warping of the
kind of elements at work in some of that genre. It fucks
with traditions and delivers with a keen thirst for blood.
But at the end of the day it still gets the fists waving and
the head banging. Heirs perhaps to the throne vacated by the
late, great Fudge Tunnel – Art Of Burning Water would
probably just smash the thing up and use the wood to smash
up their instruments. If you’re looking for an album to kick
start your 2013 with a pair of steel toes, “This Disgrace”
could be just the record you need."
METAL IRELAND
"Let loosed
from the wastelands of our nation’s capital in 2001, Art of
Burning Water return with a savage new album in the form of
“This Disgrace” This veteran noise making machine comes on
strong from the outset, blasting out of the gate with “You
Won’t Know Until You’ve Cried”. Its bludgeoning, gut-level
intensity creates the parameters for the carnage that
follows, where taut, angular guitar lines are merely
lead-ins for a series of battering injections of brutal
velocity. The unalloyed violence of “Lacerations to Hands
and Faith” and “We Failed” simply beggar belief, fashioning
a rabid form of blood-spattered expression as brusque as
anything wrought by Unsane or Zeni Geva. Since the demise of
Part Chimp and Taint, AOBW are the closest UK counterparts
to these noise rock luminaries, and this staggeringly
vicious album more than proves that very point."
ROCK-A-ROLLA
"What do you do
when one of the greatest bands in the world release and
album on one of the greatest labels in the world? That’s
right... Art Of Burning Water on Riot Season. Although
extremely welcome, it is a little bit surprising. Riot
Season specialise in drunk as hell overdrive, gonzoid freak
out noise rock of the highest order, whereas sludgecore
thinkers AOBW are an outfit of pummelling metal precision.
The results are dazzling. AOBW give IMO their best album to
date here. Not only do they appear to be a metal band, they
also incorporate a potent concoction of textural
unpredictability that rather like the Melvins, Tad or
Goatsnake twist out the sound into endless fresh and
exciting forms. The guitar tone is thick and merciless, the
drums relentless. When I first saw them back 10 years
opening for Mastodon and High On Fire at the Underworld I
was literally blown away. I thought they were the next big
thing. In metal life spans are much longer, and it is my
sincerest wish that AOBW find that big audience. But as long
as they are making records as fucked up, huge and
tone-owning as this, that’s all that matters."
FOXY DIGITALIS
"London’s Art
Of Burning Water mark their debut for Riot Season
(co-released with SuperFi & Swarm Of Nails) with the LP
‘This Disgrace’, album number four and the follow up to
2010’s ‘Head of the Tempest’ which saw the light of day via
Super-Fi and Hate Life Records. I have kept an eye on this
band since first being introduced to them a few years back
by one of the guys from London based DIY promoters ‘I Hate
The Kids’, who had hosted one of their gigs and thought they
would be to my liking. Their sound is hard to categorize,
their off the wall approach combines elements of noise rock,
punk and sludge and thrives on feedback and discordance
whilst delivering the entire package like a sledge-hammer to
the face. With ‘This Disgrace’ they have managed to up the
ante some-what, still sticking to the initial formula, yet
honing their skills, delivering an extremely focused and
intense statement which should definitely turn a few heads.
Feedback and dissonant repeated phrases open proceedings on
‘You Won’t Know Till You’ve Cried’, some (German?) vocal
samples kick in and then we are hit with the opening salvo,
an intensely heavy riff which is interspersed with more off
kilter guitar tones and scathing, tortured vocal deliveries
which build in intensity before ‘It Didn’t Get Any Better’
kicks in with one hell of a crushing, techy riff that just
gets me every time – low down and dirty stuff. From here on
in they don’t really let your attention drift very far at
all; ‘Lacerations To Hands And Faith’ has simply one of the
best breakdowns I have heard in a good while, around the
halfway mark take the already ridiculous riff and drop the
tempo to a crushing pace which will have people banging
heads so hard as to induce whiplash. ‘Way Of Bastard’ sees
out the A side with an explosion of feedback, distortion,
vocal manipulations and frenzied drumming, the shortest
track on the album clocking in at just over a minute acts as
a brief, yet chaotic intermission. ‘We Failed’ does not mess
around, a repeated drum flurry underpins the hardcore
influence of the guitars and vocals until the piece breaks
apart into a completely unforgiving, despair-ridden dirge
then back again, a technically excellent piece of work.
‘Since His Collapse’ rears its ugly head next, vocal
murmurings and a particularly melancholic guitar line that
smacks of post-rock sets the scene, before yet more
delicious tech-heavy riffage simply melts your face off, one
of the highlights of the album in my book. ‘The Live You
Live’ is rowdy as hell, definitely one to get the crowd
going pit crazy, relentlessly heavy from the word go, choppy
riffs and agro vocals beat you to a pulp getting you in the
right state of mind to deal with the closer ‘Way Of Snake’.
A huge wall of noise washes over you for the duration as the
album comes to a close, blast beats are heard way off in the
background while swathes of vocals are distorted beyond
comprehension, simply kicking the last bit of life out of
you as the LP comes to an abrupt end. Fantastic stuff and
another step up the ladder for Art of Burning Water, make
sure you snap up one of these limited 12”’s before they
disappear!"
THE SLEEPING SHAMAN
"It was at King
Alfred’s pub in Southampton that I first heard Art Of
Burning Water, during a run of UK dates late last year. What
I remember is this: a muddy gush of volume surging out of PA
and amplifiers with crooked scraps of hardcore jutting out
of it; guitar contorted into jagged stabs and discordant
groans, vocals trampled mercilessly into the noise, drums
keeping the spill within the vague, rusty constraints of
song-form. Nothing too drastic has changed in the transition
to the recorded format – the riffs have been permitted to
emerge and protrude from within the sludge a tad, although
much of the sound still abides by its status as a violent
and obscure grey matter; screams buried by their own low
fidelity, splurges of white noise adding an ugly serration
to the guitars on either side. Such a sound is delightfully
applied throughout. “You Won’t Know Till You’ve Cried”
clears its throat on feedback before stumbling over one,
solitary note for 90 seconds straight – panicked film
dialogue raises the pressure until it hammers the door down,
eventually bursting open as the album’s very first cathartic
opening. Meanwhile, “The Live You Live” – this reviewer’s
particular favourite – throws itself back and forth between
winding, quick-fretted stampedes and pure atonal hurricane,
embarking on a terrifying pendulum swing between fits of
rage and sheer loss of control. It’s all over in 27 minutes,
scorching the silence to follow with its gloomy (and
thankfully momentary) tinnitus imprint."
ATTN MAGAZINE
"AOBW channel
the prime noise-rock of vintage Zeni Geva and Godflesh with
the more complex rhythmical riff obsessions of the Melvins,
Keelhaul and mid-period Voivod" according to the press
release. I don't think I've ever read such an accurate
sentence on a one-sheet before. Basically, Art Of Burning
Water are the UK's best kept secret. For over a decade
they've been bashing out top notch noise rock riffs. In the
past couple of years they've really been stepping it up
quite a bit and this 4th LP has come along while their last
one is still hot. I'm not arguing though because it's great
to hear these songs that have absolutely killed live finally
being recorded. Although most of the riffs are pretty
complicated they have a raw, fluid looseness to them which
keeps them on the punk side of things. And, despite some odd
time signatures, there's a swing and a groove to the music.
Your head will be banging constantly although onlookers
might give you strange looks due to your odd movements. Art
Of Burning Water also have that other vital element - hooks.
You can't really whistle the tunes but you will get riffs
stuck in your head. And they don't mind repeating a
simplistic riff now and again or chugging away on one note.
Very satisfying. Generally it's that style but Since His
Collapse is a bit of a change. Gets a lot more intriciate
and math-rocky. Perhaps like their old touring partners
American Heritage. Weird time signatures and abstract guitar
lines all over the place. They do finish it off with a
cheeky e-chug riff (although it's completely un-moshable).
Fingers crossed they stick around for at least another
decade."
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