In reviewing The Body‘s black metal masterpiece, Christs, Redeemers, Phil Freeman of WIRE magazine took some harsh shots at Thrill Jockey (the label that released the album), and I think, by proxy, at the band itself, writing in the November 2013 issue, “Many indie-centric labels have signed Metal groups over the years, and the response from Metal fans is usually suspicion…Metallers don’t trust labels that sign acts from a position of ignorance, or worse, irony, and it’s an open question whether indie labels aim to attract real diehards (this being a fairly stigmatised genre), or if they’re just providing an opportunity for their regular listeners to play dress-up.” And while Freeman acknowledges that, “The Body are a duo whose roots are in Doom and Sludge, with tendrils extended into Noise, modern composition and other hard to define areas”, he fails to deduce just how far the duo of Lee Buford and Chip King intend to push the genre of Metal, as they pursue their vision of complete existential bleakness.
I can’t imagine, then, that Mr. Freeman will be too pleased to see that The Body’s upcoming slab of grimness, I Shall Die Here, is due out April 1st on RVNG Intl., a label probably better known for their electronic fare, and that, in addition, Buford and King have teamed up on the record with the UK’s Bobby Krlic, whose project The Haxan Cloak creates experimental electronic work, not Metal. Freeman’s past criticisms aside, however, this meeting between The Body and The Haxan Cloak is a brilliantly intuitive coming together of like-minded artists, as both camps are completely adept at plumbing the deepest, darkest levels of existential despair with cinematic grandeur. And, indeed, it was The Body’s “curtailing of formal classification” that prompted RVNG Intl. to inquire whether they might be up for such aphotic genre decimations.
I Shall Die Here was engineered by The Body’s longstanding sonic collaborators Seth Manchester and Keith Souza, and on this track, “Hail To Thee, Everlasting Pain“, the the band is also joined by vocalist Ben Eberle…
