Strangeways - Rotting under the La La Bombs (2013)

Always expecting the unexpected, today we have a very unconventional and rather unique release from Strangeways titled “Rotting under the La La Bombs”. Hailing from Israel, this duo produces one of the most dissonant and yet coherent releases we have reviewed in the last few months. With punishing Black Metal sections thrown into some Noise/samples experimentations, the band instantly establishes their uniqueness since the first minute of this release.

“Licking the Pussy of Mother Earth” immediately blows things wide open with excruciating Black Metal onslaughts filled with weird samples and tormentous vocals. The riffing is quite powerful and the combination of madness and devastation will immediately fuck with your head. The cool glitching sounds of “BloodRedArt” will surely confuse you on the first spin, but you will soon find out that is all part of the madness in this release. Other tracks feature weird atmospheric elements like on “Manifesto” that has a brilliant section of typing (yeah you read it right) and lush piano notes that is simply amazing.

If you haven’t jumped ship by now, “Wagner Is Power” delivers more dissonant elements thrown in with news samples in a very Merzbow/Massona-esque nature. This track also morphs into very cohesive and powerful riffing near the 6-minute mark, and they it just gets plain weird. Track 5 (Hebrew name) is one of our favorites since the band seemed to channel their madness into a more structured song with sick keyboard highlights with nightmarish vocals and samples.

Turning into a darker and more deprave sound, track 6 (another Hebrew name) reminds us a bit of Bethlehem and their earlier releases filled with crazy vocal arrangements. As one of the most ‘straight-up’ songs, “Unfinished Untitled” has that Ephel Duath vibe all written over it, with funky guitars and a very catchy rhythm. The same could be said for the chaotic closer (and aptly titled) “A Song to Remember”, which has that Anaal Nathrakh aural devastation vibe.

As a whole, “Rotting under the La La Bombs” is quite a monumental release filled with interesting (and very dissonant) ideas. The band does a great job in incorporating as much as they could in to their music and they reward the listener’s patient with killer songs and brutal Black Metal sections. If you like experimental Black Metal that is both devastating and plain weird, look no further and jump into the Strangeways train.

Label: Orgasmatron Records

Release: 2013

Genre: Experimental Black Metal

Country: Israel