Starkweather [USA]
Starkweather's legacy within aggressive music is legendary. Recorded at the same time as their highly praised "This Sheltering Night" album, their contributions here show a creative force at their most powerful. The complex "Armed Memory" shows Starkweather as tortured, jagged, and frantic as they've ever been. While their 14 minute epic closer "Nightmare Factory" is a layered metallic dirge of catastrophic proportions, dizzying and disorientating in its hypnotic ebb and flow. Starkweather has created an unclassifiable, paranoid journey into the artistic abyss, proving that aggressive music still has much to offer. No end is in sight as bands like these continue to reach down deep into their souls to explore such uncharted creative waters.