eMusic Review 0
Play any of the songs on the harrowing third record by Alison Chesley — who records as Helen Money — on electric guitar, and you’d have one of the most brutal, unnerving metal records of the year. But play them as she does on cello, and — well, you still have one of the most brutal, unnerving metal records of the year. Much of this comes from Chesley’s command of dynamic. Aptly-titled album-opener “Upsetter” starts with a low thrum that skitters forward like a tarantula before erupting into slasher-film goring, Chesley’s instrument so distortion-caked it sounds like a rotary saw. She’s joined by Neurosis drummer Jason Roeder on “Beautiful Friends,” which progresses from seasick lurch to undead horse stampede, growing more violent and insistent as it goes on. It’s a snarling, suffocating record, and by the time you get to the avalanche that concludes “Radio Recorders,” it’s clear the angels of the title aren’t coming down from the sky, but up from below, horns gleaming, eyes yellow as old bones.
