Liminal

In a world hurtling towards new frontiers of horror on a daily basis, there’s precious little time for pause. For the self-respecting artist, the only reasonable solution is psychic warfare. Moreover, the only way to wage this is without compromise, with the least possible respect for thresholds or co-ordinates of any kind. Such is the terrain of Petbrick on the titanic and transformative Liminal.

Here on their second album the duo of Wayne Adams (Big Lad/Johnny Broke) and Iggor Cavalera (Sepultura/Cavalera Conspiracy/Soulwax) lays waste to all or any constrictions in its path, dispensing an assault of vibrant catharsis that is as rich in atmospheric dread as sulphuric intent. Blending a vast sonic landscape with a relentless compunction to break the pain barrier, Liminal is a dizzying exercise in overdrive which can take in industrial abrasions, pulverising rhythmic drive, acid-damaged freakery, cinematic tension and balladic gravitas in disarmingly coherent fashion.

Existing in a resolutely post-genre realm, Petbrick are a band quite comfortable both performing at the rave hoedown of Bangfest and amidst the riff-overload of Desertfest. This was reflected in the initial stages of this album’s gestation, with the duo finding themselves split between creating feral bursts of aggression and moments of psychedelic ambience. The balance between the yin and yang of their approach subsequently led to both the album’s diversity and its title. The methodology that led to the cathartic brew of Liminal also arrived via new approaches to their meld of raw percussive aggression and equally caustic sonic textures. As Wayne puts it “I have a iconic drummer with a very unique sound to work with. How can we maybe use a D-Beat to create a brutal gabber track? How we can use his fills as breakcore eski drums -as in ‘Pigeon Kick’? And then something like ‘Ayan’ came around from me distorting the hell out of a samba tom beat to create a almost melodic line”

Other heads and personalities also came on board to add richness and intrigue to the onslaught - “I believe we got an amazing team of collaborators - from old school friends like Neurosis’ Steve Von Till and Converge’s Jacob Bannon to new school artists like Paula Rebbeledo from Rakta and New York doom rappers Lord Goat and Truck Jewelz” notes Iggor. Indeed, the last-named’s bar-spitting fury hits just as viciously as Bannon’s paint-stripping vitriol. Meanwhile, Von Till’s closing denouement ‘Reckoning’ conversely gains more power from its understatement - as Wayne adds “the clarity and minimal nature of that song in the context of this album makes it super intense, and somehow reveals how heavy a track like this can actually be”

This is an album birthed in difficult times and expressly engaged with raging against the dying of the light. As Iggor puts it “Liminal is an insane mirror of what being isolated feels like - madness through noise experimentations” An alchemical vision fit to both elevate the spirit and destroy everything in its path, ‘Liminal’ is the soun