THE VOMIT ARSONIST - An Occasion For Death (Malignant Records)

[andy vomit]

When one looks at the hierarchy of US power electronics and death industrial, few names belong at the top like Rhode Island's The Vomit Arsonist. The project of Andrew Grant since 2004, time has seen The Vomit Arsonist evolve into a major force, channeling aggression, negativity, and spite, and molding it into a focused, pinpoint display of barely restrained power and purely dark emotion. The 7 tracks found An Occasion for Death encapsulate this to near perfection, blending bleak, atmospheric drones and ominous synth layers with distorted frequency grind, mechanized rhythms, looping pulsations, and vocals that cut through the mix with unbridled animosity and ferocity. A welcome, and perhaps overdue addition to the Malignant roster! In 6 panel digipak, mastered by Steel Hook Audio.

promo video: http://youtu.be/rGxKdpXtrYI

get it HERE: http://www.malignantrecords.com/releases/4558
or HERE: http://danversstate.storenvy.com

[Ashmonger]

This will be available from Gutter Disease (together with the last Steel Hook Prostheses album).
I haven't listened to any samples, I think, but I look forward to hearing this very much!

[Ashmonger]

As said before: available from Gutter Disease in Belgium now.

[andy vomit]

review from AVE NOCTUM:

Can you imagine being able to spew up liquid fire? That would be fantastic really although you would have to be so careful if you were going out on the piss. It's one thing getting barred from the pub but to accidently burn it down would be tragic. It could be fun in church though. "The power of Christ compels... spew" whoops I did it again. Anyway enough of that silliness as the Vomit Arsonist is what can only strike me as a very serious act. This one man project helmed by Andrew Grant from Rhode Island USA blends together elements of power electronics and dark ambience. Now if you think about it those are two pretty damn contrasting components in themselves. One is generally loud and brash and noisy and the other the complete polar opposite and I had no idea how these seven tracks were going to bridge these parts.

Naturally they do so in a disquieting and unsettling fashion and this is one of several discs that have arrived lately that I would place in the "music for serial killers" category and it is perfect listening for pre or after the act. In fact it is surprisingly chilled and I would be tempted to put this on to unwind after a hard night of dismemberment when all the cleaning up had been done and you just wanted to relax and unwind.

Disquieting talk urges us to 'Think God Out Of Existence' explaining that we are all just atoms. This starts the album off over a backdrop of low droning noise. It is kind of preaching to the converted as far as I was concerned and once the talk ceases the mesmerising drones and subtle waves of background noise are left to flow through you like the dispersal of so many atoms. With titles like 'At The Edge Of Life, Everything Is An Occasion For Death' it's so easy to envisage a canvas of images from those films we watched in formative years delivering images that  were implanted never to be forgotten (even if many were faked). This is Faces Of Death musically and it is delivered with dismal funereal melody over a slow tolling drum beat and snarling electronic vocals. It's not possible to make out what is being said but it is cold, calculated, robotic and alien, putting the listener on edge.  Different experimental effects give the songs their own identities. There is a mechanised rumble to Invita Minerva for instance and the vocals suddenly fly out the void with caustic venom about them.

At 40 minutes the album feels about right any longer and it could send you into a very deep coma as the trance like qualities of the ambient noise work like valves and pistons through the mind lulling it into somnambulism before driving it back into bursts of mania like a programmed message telling you to go out and kill! The question has to be asked just who is this sort of music designed for and what is its purpose? Perhaps it's for those already in the grip of mania or those on the verge of it, to help push them over that crumbling precipice and into madness? By the 10 minute long 'Means To An End' finale which clanks and drones over a French spoken word passage your frail sanity should no doubt be close to corrosion. An Occasion For Death is an interesting 'experience' and I find that word better than 'listen.' Its thought provoking and challenging, yet at the same time inherently futile, just like existence itself.  (7/10 Pete Woods)
http://www.avenoctum.com/2013/07/the-vomit-arsonist-an-occasion-for-death-malignant-records/)

review from FORBIDDEN MAGAZINE:

Personally speaking, An Occasion for Death is one of those perfect albums that does not require a particular mood or mindset to fully embrace it on the multiple levels of which a good album has many of.  The spaciousness of the songs on this album allow for a lot of breathing room and vaporous atmosphere but never wanders too far from being able to instantaneously condense those spread out masses into strangling intense moments that will gradually wring your neck with deadly virility such as is done via "At the Edge of Life, Everything is an Occasion for Death". Clocking in at about 5-and-a-half minutes in length Vomit Arsonist will cover terrain that goes from  being a dreamy drifting through a vacuum of dark cosmic ambience loaded with rumbling bass frequencies underneath the neo-classical/militaristic percussion that brings to mind label mates Phelios and Phaenon, to the explosive bastardized neo-classical heathendom of In Slaughter Natives. Aside from the versatility and craftsmanship of the artist the quality of the recording also lends a heavy assistance to the already domineering stature of the composition itself enabling it to come off as an audio analogue to lying relaxed in a field of crop circles that suddenly ignite into scalding red flames as a giant spacecraft hovers over you to within an arms reach. And ,"NO", I'm not over exaggerating with that analogy.

And as much as I hate to draw comparisons to others acts, Vomit Arsonist does seem to touch on the highlights of many such as those just mentioned and then amplify those traits into  new reverberating specimens of their own self defining and the glorious PE sonic stomp of "Torn Between Will and Desire" with hints of Navicon Torture Technologies, Rasthof Dachau, and Stahlwerk 9. The combination of authoritarian propaganda-like speech spewed through a maze of static and whirring frequencies that feels fuzzy and brainwashing, sort of  like waking up from a GHB cocktail only to be barely able to consent to the abrasive rubbing of a barbed sand paper on your bare ass until the raw exposed flesh burns and swells with pulse to a marching fascist beat.All in all this is superb, done by an established act, that is like a super clone containing of all traits form the many different styles presented but yet still different and evolved into it's own being.
http://forbidden-magazine.com/2013/07/malignant-records-black-plague-label-spotlight/#.UflwMVNN-mm

[andy vomit]

review from CVLT NATION
http://www.cvltnation.com/think-god-out-of-existence-the-vomit-arsonist-review/

I've met the ragged brain behind The Vomit Arsonist. One listen through the project's latest output, "An Occasion for Death" would leave you imagining him as a drugged-out cutter who lives in a dark hole and sleeps on piles of trash. In reality, Andrew Grant is about as personable a fellow as you might find in Eastern Rhode Island. In fact, nearly every person I've met involved in creating Power Electronics is the same way. Maybe it's the cathartic nature of the music that lends them all some sort of inward peace. "An Occasion for Death" certainly sounds as if Grant had gathered up all the bitterness and dank black sludge in the souls of a thousand murderers and filtered it through his own heart, crushing the result into as dark an audio experience as has ever existed. It is an album of unstoppable power, constantly grinding away at the will of the listener.

Finding your path through "An Occasion..." is an exercise in meditative self-injury. From the opening "Think God out of Existence" through to the knife-edged synth swells of "Black Bile", each track is a pulsing drone meant to lull and engage while simultaneously generating a backdrop of profound illness. Grant's vocals grind over it all, ranging from a distorted snarl to the raspy effected warble in "Torn Between Will and Desire". The vocals always ride above the intense drones and serve as the textural focal point despite the battering of the electronic hate wall. While the production might seem overwhelming, the flourishes and textures that emerge with repeated listens draw the listener in with a sense of novelty. I'm still uncovering details buried in the muck of Grant's audio wall.

The looping and rhythmic nature of the sounds that Grant has coaxed out like a sick shaman lends the entire album a sense of structure and purpose, escaping the formlessness and lack of dynamics so common in dark electronics. The Vomit Arsonist skirts the line between a rock hard rain of blows and a more ambient approach that, while still noisy, is listenable in a way that many artists in the genre are not. Grant displays a firm grasp not only of the drama that can be wrung from such a mutable format, but also keeps a firm eye on the more traditional tropes of harsh noise.