As the world blindly marches towards an abysmal looking future, Rigorous Institution offers listeners a very eye opening and utterly haunting debut full-length release that serves as a warning for the possible dystopian future of which is to come if humanity continues to spiral downwards. Titled, “Cainsmarsh,” the band’s debut album features a plethora of strikingly sinister sounds with its mixture of crust punk, primitive heavy metal and ambient influences.
Teaming with Sentient Ruin Laboratories, these Portland, OR based musicians are definitely aiming to make an impact with the release of this album. From top to bottom, the production and the creative approach to how this album was recorded stood out right when I started listening. I will admit that at first I was taken back by the band’s sound, especially when pertaining to the singers spoken word style of delivering the lyrics. However, as I continued to listen to the album I started to really respect how this band's sound goes against what some extreme music fans might expect. You can hear influences likes Killing Joke, Amebix, Motörhead, Hellhammer and Venom, but in the end the band does a tremendous job crafting their own unique sound throughout the album.
Instead of opening the album with a massive bludgeoning of riffs, the band instead begins the release with a classical acoustic guitar piece. Yes, I was a bit surprised as well by this moved, but in the end I thought that the composition was executed extremely well and created this calm environment which fades away as the next song brings you into a more frantic sounding realm. Track number two, “Fever (City),” is a whirlwind of chaotic sounds and heart pounding primitive rhythms. The vocalist narrates a nightmarish tale with a gruff vocal delivery that reminded a lot of Lemmy. Also, each word vividly grabs your attention due to the harsh emphasis that is injected into each lyric. Overall, the band is extremely tight in terms of how well the instruments come together to create this overwhelming musical landscape.
The album’s title track, "Cainsmarsh," continues with more deafening apocalyptic riffs, although I felt that the music became even more bombastic sounding and started to really intensify at times. One area on this album that stood out was the keyboard arrangements. The band's keyboardist is very creative and I enjoyed the ominous atmospheres that added to music’s surrealistic horror like presentation. For example, “Nuclear Horses,” is one track where the keyboards add that extra layer of spectral sounding malevolence to compliment the tribalistic sounding drums and cataclysmic riffs. As I stated before, the album has a very horrifying surrealistic and ambient presentation at times, which can definitely be heard on a track such as, “The Terror.” Honestly, this is something you’d expect to hear in a psychological horror film, but I also like how the track does not sound gimmicky and maintains that serious level of surrealistic horror.
Speaking of horror, the two tracks on this release which I think do an amazing job tackling issues that society deals with currently and really shows the dark side of mankind are, “Laughter” and “Criminal Betrayers.” I believe, “Criminal Betrayers,” captures the thought provoking essence of Killing Joke that I have always admired, while also taking on that fierce crust punk attitude which can be heard from Amebix. Also, the bass playing provides a thunderous amount of raw aggression to fuel the singer’s disgusted tone as he unforgivingly shouts out in anger over the punishing instrumental compositions. In the end though, my favorite song on the album is the second to last track, “Earthride.” If you are a fan of music that takes you on a hellish sounding rollercoaster of distorted devastation with killer sounding bass parts, then you shall find yourself relishing in this track’s fiendish sounding devastation from start to finish.
There are a lot bands that write albums where the tracks are just sort of thrown together without any purpose and then you forget about them after listening, which is why I think Rigorous Institution left such an impact on me with, “Cainsmarsh.” Once you start listening to this album you cannot pull yourself away from the raw artistic expression. Can mankind correct its failures? Are we doomed to a desolate future? I do not know the answers to those questions, however I hope that Rigorous Institution's prophetic like warnings on this album wake people up to maybe think about the answers to those questions, otherwise humanity will eventually be rendered obsolete.
Check out the full release below:
Rigorous Institution Bandcamp:
https://rigorous-institution.bandcamp.com/
Sentient Ruin Bandcamp:
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