Ploughshare – Second Wound
Ploughshare – Second Wound
Brilliant Emperor Records
Release Date: 08.11.24
Running Time: 48:01
Review by Dark Juan
Score: 8/10
Greetings, my dear friends. I apologise for my absence of late. We have once more suffered a prolonged bout of life getting in the fucking way of what I wish to be doing, which generally is listening to Extreme music and writing nonsense. I only did a 96-hour working week last week. Still got a long way to go to beat the 136 hours I did a couple of weeks ago…
Honestly, though, you couldn’t make up the shit that goes on in my life half the time. OK, so I have had my first ever bout of the flu, which laid me straight on my arse for nearly a week which I score 0/10 and DO NOT RECOMMEND, no matter how much time it gave me to play Master of Olympus on my computer. Mrs Dark Juan appears also to have inherited the plague I am currently shaking off, and is currently fast asleep, so therefore can’t be creating any eldritch horrors to haunt the house until some unsuspecting Canadian decides they want to buy it. Which is frankly a relief.
I remind you all – if I’m telling you all a tall tale, it’s more than likely to be true. I’ll be lying if I’m waffling about some trivial thing.
Music, however, is not a trivial thing (what, a fucking segue that was. I’m sitting here feeling very pleased with myself) and therefore the Platter of Splatter ™ once more must be called into operation. Having extricated it from its hiding place, I have very firmly secured it and have placed the latest release from Ploughshare, entitled “Second Wound”.
Now, Ploughshare are Australian and Dark Juan is British, but any lingering animosity about the rugby or cricket will not be being played out here. Although Aussie Rules Football appears to be an excuse for a right fucking barney whilst wearing sports kit. And they call flip-flops thongs, which is just wrong. Erm, how many more cheap Australia jokes can we get in before I actually listen to their album?
Obviously, I’m joking. Aussies are deeply sound people who Dark Juan is quite fond of. And Australia gave us The Berzerker, so we have much to be thankful for.
Ploughshare do not sound like The Berzerker.
However, Dark Juan has been a fan of these Antipodean mayhem makers since their last release, “Ingested Burial Ground”, where the Industrial element of their music was dialled up somewhat further than the rawer, purer Black Metal sound they have employed for this album. Ploughshare (possibly named for the proverb about turning them into swords?) do not combine insane, amphetamine-fuelled Gabba Techno with Death Metal. No, Ploughshare operate in the shadowier end of the spectrum with a Symphonic Black Metal sound that they have twisted and rendered into something that hides in the corners where there is no light and strikes viciously out at the unsuspecting. “Second Wound” does something very unusual as it combines the waspish, technical viciousness of Emperor with the rage and loss-driven horror that is Anaal Nathrakh. However, Ploughshare combine the two into a sinuous, deeply evil sounding cacophony that really is music to the ears of your favourite/ most despised Hellpriest.
So far, so good, I hear you all cry. The Aussies have discovered Black Metal. To quantify this band thusly is to miss the point of them, though. They offer more. Yes, there are many hyperspeed passages in the music and it sounds like the guitarist is flaying his fingers on razor wire rather than strings, but there’s a strong undercurrent of Jazz, of all things, underneath the distortion and (alternately) vomiting and howling. There’s also more than a soupçon of Technical Death Metal lurking in the music and even a thunderous touch of Industrial electronics, this being evident mainly on ‘The Mockery of the Demons’.
“Second Wound” is an uncompromising listen. No quarter is asked for and no prisoners taken. It is a deep, dank, dystopian record that has no pretensions of beauty. It is just unremitting, possibly Satanic hatred towards everything and everybody set to an aural backdrop not unlike the slaughtering of innocents, complete with lamenting mothers and the bark of heavy calibre machine gun fire. It is idiosyncratic and unpleasant in the sense of it being a deeply uncomfortable listen, and it is a very different kettle of fish to earlier releases, showing considerably more polish and elan in the songwriting. In short, Ploughshare have grown up and appear to be fucking PISSED about it.
Now to be critical. The production on the album, although perfectly listenable, sometimes allows the guitars to be too strident for my ear and there were a couple of times (mainly because I was listening through cans at a ridiculous volume) where the high end actually caused me pain not akin to having big fuck-off needles inserted into my skull, sans anaesthetic. Naturally, I quite enjoyed this, but the less-seasoned Metal fan might find their teeth set on edge a bit. Otherwise, it is a fairly well-judged bit of production and sound engineering that aims for a sound that straddles the divide between the recorded-on-a-Radio-Shack-tape-recorder-through-Sonar-while-the-band-play-on-a-submarine-thirty-miles-distant jam jar sound of early Black Metal with modern high-quality studio aesthetics. Put simply, early Mayhem on CD is a good analogy for the sound recording. This isn’t a criticism, more a spot of admiration for the band aiming for a point of the sound spectrum and actually hitting it right on the mark.
Unlike their cricket team.
Listen, I can’t help it. It’s the law, OK? I wouldn’t be British if I didn’t…
To sum this beast up then – Ploughshare offer much for the seasoned, corpse painted and be-spiked Black Metaller lost in a Scandinavian forest to enjoy, as well as anyone who is a musical masochist. Your Dom/mes will be quite tired if they are using “Second Wound” as the soundtrack to whatever they are doing to your poor, alabaster flesh. There’s enough technical stuff to have guitar people rushing for their notation pads to write where all the demisemihemidemisemiquavers are. Yes, it is a real thing, and I suggest you look it up, and enough Industrial grinding to keep the most ardent of metal manglers and angle grinder toting mechheads happy. Dark Juan is a fan. Australia has given us some of the most dehumanised, misanthropic music I have heard for a long time.
Surely, it’s not that bad over there, lads?
The Patented Dark Juan Blood Splat Rating System awards Ploughshare 8/10 for a record that is not beguiling in any sense. It just subjugates you and does it without any discernible human expression on its face.
Toodle pip.
TRACKLISTING:
01. The Fall of All Creatures
02. Desired Second Wound
03. Thorns Pressed Into His Head
04. The Mockery of the Demons
05. So Reverend and Dreadful
LINE-UP:
It appears that Ploughshare do not want to share their identities with us mere mortals because I have been trawling the internet for literally minutes now and can’t find any indication as to who the people behind this unholy racket are. It’s highly likely that at least one of them is called Dave.
LINKS:
Disclaimer: This review is solely the property of Dark Juan and Ever Metal. It is strictly forbidden to copy any part of this review, unless you have the strict permission of both parties. Failure to adhere to this will be treated as plagiarism and will be reported to the relevant authorities.
