Dublin-based Beneath the Sod — the mostly-solo-project of Raymond Keenaghan, also of Gourd — will release its self-titled EP on Dec. 17 through Cursed Monk Records. It is a work of atmospheric extremity, comprised of six songs running 28 minutes that, from opener “Silence of Lead” to finale “Deafness of Lead,” grips the listener with a lurching, semi-industrial sonic brutality. “Drooping Spirit” stinks of hot death. “Silence of Lead” rages to a forward riff and a drum-machine march that’s like Godflesh from the dark universe, and the cave-echo vocals, samples and rumbling, post-Khanate barely-a-song-ism of the piano-for-emphasis “Begotten of Grot” (video premiering below) — the first of two tracks to feature guest vocals from Unyielding Love‘s Richard Carson, the other being “Deafness of Lead” — follows with a further plunge into some oily abyss that only gets heavier and more maddening as it consumes across its five minutes.

It’s not so much a video premiere as it is a psychological test. A moving Rorschach of horrors across five minutes set to the audio from your deathly poetic nightmares. Though its underlying mechanized grit remains, highlighting (lowlighting?) the balance of rawness and concept that almost inherently coincides with something even partially industrial as Beneath the Sod is; that is to say, at some point during the process of making the thing, it’s likely Keenaghan looked at a waveform, and thought to himself that indeed this was the noise he wanted to make. That’s a jarring thought as “Expulsion of Revulsion” plays out its lumbering ugh-ness and “Rustling of the Spheres” kicks the tempo up but is almost so noisy in the process you’d hardly notice if not for the biting high frequency cut-through of the digitized cymbals. With “Deafness of Lead” — the EP running between silence and deafness, mind you — first calling back to (admittedly, a more active) Khanate before departing suddenly before two minutes in to a more disjointed version of the same progression on which it long-fades out, the proverbial last nail in the coffin proves no less rusty than any of the others.

It is well and truly fucked, on aesthetic terms, and “Begotten of Grot” should probably best be viewed in either a vomit-stank dungeon or a chic Dublin art gallery with the video projected on a white wall while viewers rest chins on their hands and discern whatever message from its raw scathe might be the most pretentious.

Not appropriate to say “enjoy” here, as I generally might, but if you can appreciate the expressive gruel of something so intended toward such punishment — and not everyone can, and that’s okay — well then, enjoy.

PR wire info follows the clip below:

Beneath the Sod, “Begotten of Grot” video premiere

Beneath the Sod is the one man project of Raymond Keenaghan, one half of Doom Noise merchants Gourd.

On December 17th we will be releasing Beneath The Sod’s new self-titled EP on CD and digital.

This will be Beneath The Sod’s third release after their debut album Circling the Drain (Fort Evil Fruit, 2017), and their split with Crypticum, Transmorphic Eye (Cursed Monk Records, 2018).

Featuring guest vocals from Richard Carson (Unyielding Love) on “Begotten of Grot” and “Deafness of Lead,” this latest offering from Beneath The Sod offers up an intense serving of Industrial Doom, a claustrophobic experience which sounds like the sonic equivalent of a panic attack. Quite frankly, we think it’s their best work to date.

Beneath the Sod scrape back the top soil to lay bare all that is repulsive and feculent beneath. Narcotic and eldritch, Beneath the Sod erodes the listener with a writhing tapestry of industrial doom, grinding noise and hallucinatory horror. Punishing and bewildering, with each release Beneath the Sod sinks deeper into their unique and singularly maddening mire.

Beneath the Sod, Beneath the Sod (2021)

Beneath the Sod on Facebook

Beneath the Sod on Soundcloud

Cursed Monk Records website

Cursed Monk Records on Bandcamp

Cursed Monk Records on Facebook

Cursed Monk Records on Instagram

Tags: Beneath the Sod, Beneath the Sod Self-titled, Cursed Monk Records, Dublin, Ireland, self-titled

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 24th, 2021 at 8:40 am and is filed under Bootleg Theater. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.