JG Thirwell • Simon Steensland

Ipecac Records 2020

Knowing much of Thirwell as basically the artist that Trent Reznor mused off of, I was expecting an album reminiscent of his Foetus work. At best, perhaps a Post-Industrial/Glitch album. I was pleasantly mistaken. This is a musician’s album. A composer’s album. A confluence of Olivier Messiaen and Godflesh with an adherence to seemingly impossible time signatures. The highest proper respect to JG Thirwell and Simon Steensland, obviously, for composing this unearthly material. Steensland is a well known Swedish composer known for his theatre compositions. Responsible for drums on this album is Morgan Ågren, who has played with the likes of Kaipa and Magma. The drums were absolutely phenomenal. The downtuned guitars give a layer of industrial sludgery with intermittent interludes of ethereal beauty. While this is not an album for the masses, it is truly a new gold standard for progressive compositions.

8/10