Foetus Interruptus

Thaw   (Self-Immolation/Some Bizarre UK)

Another swinging Foetus-wrecking ball.  Threatening and explosive, Clint Ruin's latest, Thaw, is a mixture of styles all with that Thirlwell rumbling, abrasive edge.  The album taken as a whole pulsates with boom then swirls with strings.  Vocals roar and chill on the authoritative "Don't Hide It Provide It" - ("If you don't stop houndin' me I'm gonna be poundin' thee").  Classical themes are interwoven throughout the LP, especially on "Asbestos" with its Stravinsky-like siege laid over a horror movie soundtrack and "Fratricide Pastorale", an instrumental dirge.  "Dipsomaniac Kiss" is probably the closest Foetus Interruptus will get to a lounge act with the walking bass, bluesy piano and lamenting guitar building into a climax of perilous feedback and big band horns.  With "!Chingada!" Indian melodies and percussion are set with scream and stomp.  The album wraps up with the eerie "A Prayer For My Death", a hope for release from "this earthly alcatraz" to the eternity of demise.  Not for those weak at heart.

Source: Rockpool of 15 December 1988, Colleen Murphy.

04 July 1996