8 Hour Animal "Kill Your Boss"

    The upcoming full-length album from 8 Hour Animal is a profoundly hostile sounding extreme creation. Titled, “Kill Your Boss,” the album features a plethora of dissonant electronic noises along with some sadistically hypnotic industrial rhythms. 

    The one-man act behind 8 Hour Animal dives deep into the catastrophic electronic nightmare sound established by acts such as Ministry, Skinny Puppy, Godflesh and My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult, yet also incorporates some very unconventional methods into the overall mix. 8 Hour Animal simply does not follow a repetitive formula and the music makes you feel like you are experiencing a schizophrenic meltdown. Compared to 8 Hour Animal’s previous release, “Resigner,” I felt as though the songs on this album sounded even more warped at times by offering an overwhelming amount of bludgeoning industrial sounds. 

    On the first track, “Real Masks,” I liked how the artist built up this catchy metallic industrial sounding rhythm and then slowly started to throw in these disturbing burst of distortion and horrifying vocal parts. There were times during the track when I started feeling dizzy following along to all the different noises that seemed to mercilessly clutter up the soundscape. The entire album is truly a frantic tornado of distortion and harsh electronic rhythms with tracks such as, “Grind Down” and “Under the Sod,” being prominent examples of how 8 Hour Animal is not looking to captivate listeners with breath taking melodies. The music is almost a surreal reflection of how humanity is slowly starting to crumble and people are mentality becoming unhinged under the societal pressures which haunt them each day. 

    Although most of the album contains intense mind melting arrangements, I was most impressed by the track, “Thaw.” The song’s tempo at first is very slow and very hypnotic sounding, but the music goes through this unbelievably eye opening industrial metamorphosis. Towards the end of the song you become engrossed in the hallucinogenic cinematic atmosphere and soon drift into the sheer dark electronic void. The last song on the album, “Make It Easy for Me,” is a decent track as well and convey’s a more 90’s industrial sound by capturing that raw surrealistic tone. When I look back at the entire album I definitely hear the influences in each compositions, but I cannot deny the unique approach and delivery that the artist behind 8 Hour Animal is able to achieve. 

    8 Hour Animal’s, “Kill Your Boss,” is a vivid example of true unorthodox artistic creativity that strives to tear down the walls of mundane extreme music. Although there were times on this album where I felt as if the arrangements were a bit disorganized, the album’s overall presentation is all about establishing a truly entropic environment which challenges order and structure. Fans of old school industrial/experimental electronic music will really take a liking to this album’s sound, so I highly recommend checking the album out if you are into savage mind altering electronic music. Leave it to Sentient Ruin to once again present the world with an extreme act that will leave you questioning human existence, while finding yourself completely possessed by the unfathomably deviant sounds. 

Check out the song "Grind Down" below (Album comes out March 17th, 2023) : 

Sentient Ruin Bandcamp: 

https://sentientruin.bandcamp.com/

8 Hour Animal "Resigner"

   At first you almost don’t know how to react when listening to 8 Hour Animal’s debut full-length album, “Resigner,” because you find yourself trying to pick up the pieces of your shattered sanity after listening to this album. The blitzkrieg of harsh industrial elements and chaotic electronic noises creates a massive sounding mind altering atmosphere. 

   Once again, Sentient Ruin finds a one-man act who does not follow the stereotypical path and explores the most deviant sounds a human could possible conjure up. Imagine Ministry and all those Wax Trax Records band, but with a more inhuman approach that aspires to bring about a musical annihilation of unforgiving digital proportions. Some of the compositions on this album are truly phenomenal and captivating, while some are down right frightening in terms of the amount of overwhelming electronic sounds that pierce your ears without remorse. 

   The first song on the album, “Almost Free,” is a nightmare inducing piece of music and the audio clip in the beginning of the track adds to the song’s misanthropic theme. True electronic sounding disgust brings about a rush of hateful energy that dissolves into a sea of complete chaos. The second track, “Oblivs,” reminded me a bit of early acid house, but with a more darker and sadistic energy coming from the heart pounding rhythms. Actually, I thought the track was very catchy, so much that felt like I was in a complete trance as the music intensely flowed out of my speakers. 

   Track number three, “Clever People,” is another hard hitting industrial experimentation which I thought brought together a monumental amount of frantic sound effects. The muffled vocals were hard to make out, although I believe they were more intended to inject an extra boost of savagery into the overall mix. “Pushing Myself Down,” is the longest song off of the album with a total run time of around 13 minutes. Give this artist 13 minutes and you are sure to hear a plethora of unfathomable electronic compositions. The track definitely reminded me of some classic 80’s horror film score, but I would go as far to say that if this were used in a movie I would not be surprised if the concept of the film would be something truly sinister. 

   The last two tracks on the album are also worth checking out, “Wake” and “Once You Accept Everything,” however I was really impressed more with the beginning of this release. The level of unorthodox creativity that I heard on this album stood out from start to finish, which is why I would say that 8 Hour Animal is perfect for Sentient Ruin. Again, here we have a release that does not sound like most of what is being pumped out these days and actually explores so much more than just the typical industrial sounding release. Highly worth checking out if you are in the mood for something that will melt your mind and turn you brains into a puddle of liquid! 

Check out the entire release below:

Sentient Ruin Bandcamp:

https://sentientruin.bandcamp.com/album/resigner