AUTHOR & PUNISHER — KRÜLLER (review)

Album · 2022 · Industrial Metal

3/5 · 2022-03-03
siLLy puPPy

AUTHOR & PUNISHER is not an act i’m familiar with so the entire history of this solo project of Tristan Shone has eluded me thus far therefore i have to take this guy’s entire existence into consideration from solely sitting through his latest and seventh album KRÜLLER which seems to have no logical meaning in any language although a quick Google translate erroneously concludes it means “cracker” in German :/ It doesn’t take long to establish that AUTHOR & PUNISHER is a harsh noisy industrial doom and drone metal outfit with a propensity of taming homemade instruments that tweak controllers and speakers to eke out the most industrial sounds possible. Well cool!

Shone has been nurturing his industrial nightmares for quite some time now having released his debut “The Painted Army” as far back as 2005 and nicely fits not only into the world of industrial noise but the various strands of post-metal, doom metal and of course industrial metal. While industrial metal usually revolves some metal guitar riffing with repetitive grooves, souped up synthesizers set to kill and bleak oft nauseating soundscapes emulating a nuclear fallout, AUTHOR & PUNISHER has maximized these effects by taking the monotony out of the sound system and adding the proper channels to eke out all kinds of freakiness in full decibalage.

Apparently the albums vary drastically ranging from the energetic “Beastland” to the extra noisy “Melk en Honing.” KRÜLLER heads off in a new direction by taking aspects of the past canon and offers a bizarre twisted melodic parade through the strange world of manipulated sounds and crashing into metal percussive beats. An underground sensation of sort, AUTHOR & PUNISHER succeeded in wooing Danny Carey and Justin Chancellor both of Tool onto the record. Add to that an industrial take on a classic Portishead song and what you have is a frighteningly modern take on what sounds like to my ears a mix of Nine Inch Nails, Devin Townsend, Godflesh and perhaps Throbbing Gristle or Coil at key moments.

I’m not sure what to think of this really. As far as the ugly elements such as the metal and highly processed sound effects are concerned, the album is excellent and indeed delivers the industrial goods in full spectrum radiance. Where this album falters is in the vocal department. Apparently ole Tristan delivers abrasive growly vocals much like Ministry, Godflesh for the most part and in the case on this album where he sounds like a dead ringer for Devin Townsend. While his growly vocals are tolerable, it’s his clean vocals that sound strained and weak and not particularly interesting. His squeaky clean tones seem to dilute the effects of the industrial aspects which include the dark synth sounds, electro-industrial sterility and doom metal depression.

This album has been compared to shoegaze albums from My Bloody Vanlentine in its chaotic atmospheric approach but the clean vocals remind me too much of Kayo Dot’s worst output. Overall i’m enthralled by how different this album sounds from virtually everything i’ve encountered in any genre but also perturbed by the influences being a bit too obvious but most of all i think the vocals are what drag this experience way down for me. This unique music requires a unique vocal accompaniment and it seems that that entire aspect has gone totally unaddressed. Perhaps an artist like Devil Doll or some more charismatic vocalist like Type O Negative’s Peter Steele is what the doctor ordered but to me this reminds me of some of those electronic Ulver albums that are great instrumentally and then feature rather mediocre vocal delivers. Oh well, not for me i guess.