New Bastard Noise / Sickness Collab Knocks on ‘Death’s Door’

Do you know the sound of terror? Eric Wood has been one of the kings of aural punishment for over 25 years, dating back to the early '90s with his bands Man Is the Bastard, Neanderthal, Crossed Out, PHC and more. He hasn't slowed down in the slightest: Come November 11, his Bastard Noise project will release Death's Door via the mighty Relapse Records. It's a terrifying collaboration with another noise veteran, Chris Goudreau, a.k.a. Sickness, one of the masters of American cut-up harsh noise.

Death's Door begins with Wood's growl announcing the name of the piece before a wave of cut-up harsh filth – à la Macronympha but with modular synths instead of junk metal – pummels the listener for minutes. It then decays into a very "calm before the storm" high-frequency fuzz and crackling. A heartbeat-like pulse guides you through Wood's screams, whispers and growls, which recall early black / death metal as the track slowly builds and clashes into uncomfortable cyclical bursts of what sound like emergency sirens and alarms, before tapering off and fading away abruptly — like a heart monitor finally flatlining.