UMUR "Issei Sagawa" is an EP release by Dutch noise/drone/black metal act Gnaw Their Tongues. The EP was independently released in August 2007. Gnaw Their Tongues was formed in 2005 and is one of many one-man projects by prolific Dutch musician Mories.

"Issei Sagawa" is a 2 track, 9:31 minutes long release. It´s a concept release revolving around infamous Japanese murderer, cannibal, and later TV celebrity "Issei Sagawa". In 1981 while studying in France, Sagawa murdered, committed acts of necrophelia, and finally cannibalized the corpse of female Dutch co-student Renée Hartevelt. In a bizarre turn of events Sagawa was judged to be legally insane and unfit for imprisonment, and therefore was committed to indefinite confinement at an insane asylum. Sagawa´s wealthy father payed an expensive lawyer to run his case, and Sagawa ended up being deported to Japan, where he was released to freedom upon his arrival, and later became a minor TV celebrity by sharing his experiences...the cover artwork makes a bit more sense now, doesn´t it?

So that is the real life tragic story you have to have in mind while listening to the two pieces of noise/drone music on this EP. Some of Gnaw Their Tongues releases feature some black metal parts or at least some metal related sections, but not this EP which is strictly a noise/drone release. Both tracks feature long monotone and eerie droning effects, industrial noises, and voice samples. It´s actually quite an unpleasant listen, and especially the samples of someone making nasty smacking sounds in the end of "White Skin" makes my hair stand on end. It´s just incredibly disgusting...and nausea inducing.

The material is well produced and well performed too, and despite feeling a bit repetitive and one-dimensional, the songwriting is decent too and definitely gets the dread and horror atmosphere right. Mories is a genius at creating exactly this type of claustrophobic and bleak sound. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved...as always enter at your own risk, and don´t say I didn´t warn you...

UMUR "Wir essen Seelen in der Nacht" ("We eat souls in the night") is an EP release by Dutch noise/drone/industrial/black metal act Gnaw Their Tongues. The EP was independently released in November 2014 and offered as a "name your price" option on Gnaw Their Tongues Bandcamp profile. As on nearly all other releases by Gnaw Their Tongues, Mories is responsible for all instruments, vocals, artwork, and production. A true one-man army.

Stylistically "Wir essen Seelen in der Nacht" belongs in the more noise/drone oriented part of the project´s output, and the 4 tracks on the 18:41 minutes long EP don´t feature many metal elements. The eerie haunting atmospheres and the samples of classical instruments are central elements in the sound along with the usual unpleasant noise effects. Some sections of the tracks feature tortured screaming by Mories, but this is mostly an instrumental and overall rather disturbing listen. Mories is incredibly skilled at building terrifying atmospheres designed to send chills down your spine. And he succeeds in doing that on this EP too, but overall the music lacks memorability and climaxes to hold on to, and to my ears Mories has taken the noise/drone aspect of his sound a bit too far on "Wir essen Seelen in der Nacht". It´s of course an aquired taste, but personally I prefer the Gnaw Their Tongues releases which feature more metal elements. This simply has a tendency to become a bit tedious.

"Wir essen Seelen in der Nacht" is packed in a professional, detailed, and relatively raw sound production, which suits the music well. Compared to the sound productions on some of the previous releases by the project, the production here isn´t nearly as raw sounding. Overall it´s another intriguing release by Gnaw Their Tongues although Mories haven´t chosen his best material to appear here, but a 3 star (60%) rating is still warranted.

UMUR "Per Flagellum Sanguemque, Tenebras Veneramus" is the 6th full-length studio album by Dutch drone/noise/black metal act Gnaw Their Tongues. The album was released through Crucial Blast Records in November 2011. As always sole member Mories handles everything on the album.

The music on the album is eerie sounding noise/drone, and this time around it´s like Mories has prioritized the noise element. The album is very atmospheric, but in an unpleasant, cold and tortured way. The music of Gnaw Their Tongues have always been hard on the ears and not easily digested, but if you ask me the emphasis on the noise side of the project´s sound makes "Per Flagellum Sanguemque, Tenebras Veneramus" one of the harder releases in the project´s discography to appreciate. Most tracks on the 57:58 minutes long album exceed the 6 minutes mark and as rythmic foundation and hooks are sparse (which is not unusual for Gnaw Their Tongues, but here more than ever), it´s an album that requires attention and possibly many spins. Even then it´s still an extremely challenging listen. The sections with spoken samples and classical instrumentation stand out to me.

I´ll never question the musical genious of Mories, which is again obvious when listening to "Per Flagellum Sanguemque, Tenebras Veneramus", but I must confess that this particular album doesn´t do that much for me. It´s so hard to penetrate and grasp that it becomes tiresome work instead of listening pleasure to me. People more into noise will probably enjoy this more than I do though. Personally I hope Mories will put more black metal/drone elements into the music again on the next release, to increase the memorability factor. Despite my issues with the album it´s obviously a quality release and a 3 - 3.5 star (65%) rating is warranted.

UMUR "Spit at Me and Wreak Havoc on My Flesh" is the debut full-length studio album by Dutch experimental extreme metal act Gnaw Their Tongues. Gnaw Their Tongues is a one man act consisting of Mories who handles everything from music to artwork on the album. The album was self-released in January 2006.

The music on the album is dark, extreme, ambient, noisy, unpleasant, experimental but most importantly very intriguing. The music actually defies catagorization that´s how unique I think it is. I find it deeply fascinating. I´ll try and describe it like this: The basis in the music is droning and dark distorted bass/ guitars and what sounds like programmed/ sampled drums (they could be real though. I´m not sure), but on top of those add layers upon layers of samples, sounds (eerie sounding keyboards/ synths/ piano/ strings) and voices. And we´re talking really unpleasant samples of tortured screams, moaning, blood dripping, creepy heavy breathing, autopsy details, mad preachers and other unpleasantries. The vocals are raspy and tortured screams which mostly appear low in the mix. The perfect soundtrack to a torture scene or one of those rare horror movies that are actually scary. To be honest I have no idea how this music is made. I´m a musician myself but this goes beyond my knowledge in music. There are tons of little details going on at any given moment on the album and the music on "Spit at Me and Wreak Havoc on My Flesh" certainly wouldn´t work as background music. This is a demanding listen and it deserves to be dealt with accordingly. There´s a dark, filthy atmosphere on the album and I kind of feel like a naughty child listening to something mommy definitely wouldn´t approve of. A filthy and shameful feeling yet at the same time exciting and addictive. It´s like people passing by a traffic accident. They know it´s wrong to look but they can´t help themselves.

While the music is somewhat rooted in black metal, there´s very little on "Spit at Me and Wreak Havoc on My Flesh" that resembles traditional black metal. The track that resembles traditional old school black metal the most is "Healing Open Wounds With Salt" but "...Gnaw Their Tongues in Pain" and "Seven Heads and Ten Horns" also feature some faster paced sections that could be viewed as somewhat traditional. Most of the album is slow and droning though. With song titles like "Death, Suffering and Death", "Healing Open Wounds With Salt" and "...Gnaw Their Tongues in Pain" it´s easy to imagine the lyrical content on the album.

The production is raw, noisy and chaotic upon first listen but repeated listens have meant that the sound has opened up to me and I´ve begun to understand and enjoy the album even more. I think this sound is as close to perfection as you´ll get for the music on this album. It´s not often I enjoy productions as noisy and distorted as this one but under the right circumstances a raw production like this one can work wonders.

I know it´s big words but I don´t hesitate to call Mories a genius on the grounds of this album. He is probably in the mad and bizarre genius end of the spectrum but I´m sure he´ll take that as a compliment rather than an insult. I can´t wait another minute before I get my hands on another release in his extensive discography. Calling this a promising debut album would be an understatement of the big ones. I´d rather call it a mindblowing and extremely innovative release. The fact that the album is available for download on Gnaw Their Tongues myspace for a "Pay What You Want" download fee (the original pressing is out of print) just makes this release even more attractive. A 4.5 star rating is more than deserved and I might upgrade this one to a full 5 in time. This is what I call truly progressive and innovative music. I´ve been repulsed and I´ve been frightened while listening to this album and more than one time have I been forced to turn the music off because I just couldn´t handle it anymore. Yet I keep coming back because some dark perverted part of me seems to crave this. It´s taken me almost a year before I felt confident enough to write about this album. I hope I did it justice.

UMUR "...Spasming and Howling, Bowels Loosening and Bladders Emptying, Vomiting Helplessly..." is a demo released in August 2007 by Dutch experimental extreme metal act Gnaw Their Tongues. The demo is not available as a physical release but can be downloaded for free on the band´s Myspace. There´s a blurred line between this demo release and the official releases by Gnaw Their Tongues when it comes to quality, so don´t expect this to sound like a demo compared to the band´s official releases. The reason for making a demo at this stage in the band´s career is a bit unclear to me as Gnaw Their Tongues already had several official releases under their belt at this point, but the recordings may be of an older date. As always with Gnaw Their Tongues releases everything from composing and playing to artwork design is done by the band´s sole member Mories.

The demo contains six tracks and the total playing time is 48 minutes. All songs exceed the six minute mark. The music is extremely dark with droning bass/ guitars, sampled/ programmed drums and layers upon layers of eerie samples and keyboard/ synth sounds. The music is somewhat rooted in black metal but has been given an experimental, industrial, droning and ambient twist. A song like "Nihilism; Tied Up and Burning" represents the black metal side of the music. It´s a noisy, intense black metal track and it kinda reminds me of a band like the noisy industial grindcore/ black metal act Anaal Nathrakh when they are at their most filthy. Most tracks are slow and droning though. The atmosphere is dark, eerie and unpleasant and with song titles like "Chinese Torture Worship" and "Horse Drawn Hearse" it´s obviously not the lighter sides of life that Mories writes about which is also obvious when reading the title of the demo. "Chinese Torture Worship" actually needs a special mention as it is positively one of the most unpleasant listening experiences I´ve had in a while. I listened to the song on my iPod while walking through the dark basement in the building where I live and it freaked me out to the point where I had to look over my shoulder several times to see if a monstrous creation was sneaking up on me. Eerie white ambient noise with tortured screaming vocals low in the mix. I ususally have a hard time appreciating this kind of ambient noise music but this song really is something special. "Horse Drawn Hearse" is a really fascinating track as well. Lots of atmosphere enhancing mad preacher samples in that one. The last track on the demo is "Seven Heads, Ten Horns" which was also featured on the debut full-length studio album "Spit at Me and Wreak Havoc on My Flesh (2006)". I´m assuming this demo version was recorded before 2006 even though it was released in 2007.

The production is noisy and at times murky, but the dark sound suits the music well. It´s one of the more lo-fi productions in Gnaw Their Tongues discography though.

"...Spasming and Howling, Bowels Loosening and Bladders Emptying, Vomiting Helplessly..." is a great release by Gnaw Their Tongues and considering that it´s free for download on the band´s Myspace it´s an even more attractive item IMO. Gnaw Their Tongues has made many fascinating high quality releases but if you would like to take a listen to how the music sounds and not even pay for it, this is a great opportunity to do that. The demo is not Mories best release but it´s still a great effort and a 3.5 star rating is well deserved. It seems like Mories can do no wrong.