A cold, bleak, nightmarish vision, Red Harvest’s latest release Internal Punishment Programs continues the band’s rampage against humanity with its tightly crafted and densely layered mix of death/black metal and industrial chaos. Every bit of light is squeezed out of this impenetrable barrage of noise that’s dehumanising and misanthropic in the extreme.

The blank, breathless production works perfectly here for the type of apocalyptic soundscape Red Harvest are trying to achieve. ‘Anatomy Of The Unknown’ wastes no time before dragging the listener into its inescapable void of disorientation, hopelessness and confusion, while the title track and the collage-like ‘Symbol Of Decay’ have a similar effect through dropping the speed and letting the shadows loom out a bit more, letting the menace grow by itself. ‘Mekanizm’ sees an almost prototypical death metal riff appearing in the midsection, balancing the sparsity and pummelling drive of the parts around it, and ‘Teknocrate’ and ‘Wormz’ bring back a more breakneck pace and upfront venom to the band’s dissonant attack.

The other half of Red Harvest’s sound, the soulless digitised industrial side, really does business in the pitch-black ‘Abstract Morality Junction’, which features Ofu Kahn’s possessed howling playing off the sterility of Lrz’s synth patterns perfectly, and the almost dance-like ‘Synthesize My DNA’. The two themes often meld awesomely as well, such as in the robotic and mechanical ‘Fall Of Fate’ and the previously mentioned ‘Symbol Of Decay’. The samples and programming add to the already inherent nihilism of Red Harvest’s sound, and make it that much more claustrophobic.

Internal Punishment Programs succeeds in that all its songs are different and unique while still being all unwaveringly negative. This is not music for the soul – this is music for the dark, angry thoughts that fester inside a person’s brain while they battle insomnia and bitter paranoia. Not a ride everyone would be willing to take of course, but for those who enjoy such things this well-constructed and detailed album is a trip well worth getting lost in.

» redharvest.com
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