A review of Electric Sewer Age's "Bad White Corpuscle"

A corpuscle can be defined as an unattached cell, small mass or body. There are six of them here, each containing their own, specific, dark poison.

In one sentence: this is the sound of creeping disease.

We enter this suppurating, fleshy mess with "Grey Corpuscle", a dense and throbbing node which sets the infected tone for the first two thirds of Bad White Corpuscle perfectly. From there, the viscosity of the pus changes for "Corpuscular  Corpuscle", a place that sounds darker and lighter, thicker and thinner, at the same time. The fluid thins about halfway through, before warbling and shaking into "Amber Corpuscle"; here, you are drowning in it, it fills your eyes and nostrils, cloying, smothering. At one point, you succumb to Black Antlers Disease*. In "Rising Corpuscle", the situation degrades from discomfort and disease to danger, and the phage is revealed: it is mechanized and mesmerizing, the electronic sound of infection. It's maddening. From here, we discover a temple of filth, wherein we hear the sound of a cracked and dying heart. Then...the cleansing sounds of ocean, vast and forgiving...unless from its depths is where this plague originated.
The first four tracks serve as one cancer and toxin ridden entity, while the last two stand on their own: the fifth, the title track, carries with it the feel of a bad fairytale, something about the high notes and the chanting. The deep rutting noises are horrifyingly indicative, but when that jouncy beep beat comes in, things get less sinister and more funky. Head nod. It's still sinister, but in a clean, cold, metallic way. Measured. Restrained. Eventually, whatever energy that was powering this track dwindles as mottled voices choke it to death. Finally, we have "Black Corpuscle", the sound of a cycling, black heart along with the respiration of a Thing that should have neither. Jagged, electronic pieces, great texture.
 We also hear the first clear vocals on the album and they are reminiscent of a more dramatic permutation of "Is Suicide A Solution?". In the end, everything clots and scabs over.

Coil fans: you will like this.
Danny Hyde, John Deek and Peter Christopherson are still managing to create some of the most terrifying and fully realized sonic landscapes out there, those last two, Deek and Christopherson, from beyond the grave.

Bad White Corpuscle is a soundtrack for sickness, one to which there is no cure.

* If you aren't familiar with that particular malady, you can read up on the symptoms here.