Genre:  Avant-garde Industrial Black Metal

01 Ancient Screams of the Mutilated
02 Insect of the North Gate
03 As the Wound in your Hand Festers
04 Ale of the Tridant
05 Lord of the Bastard
06 Stuck in the Gateway
07 The Rotting Uplifter
08 Into the Forward Rushing River of Blood
09 Ultimate Dwarf Ale
10 I am the Last One
11 Eating the Moss from the Rock
12 Contemplating the Future
13 Tree and the Nebula
14 The End Result Repeated Once Again
15 Drinking the Blood from your Face

There's nothing that will surprise and interest and horrify you more than receiving an album with a cover that has militant, undead zombie dwarfs marching with fully automatic weapons and tanks.  I don't know about your worst nightmare, but I can say with most certainty that this would have to rank upon my worst dreams.  Liver Cage are a duo  of seasoned veterans in the field of noise black metal.  Much like Nekrasov and the previously reviewed Alignak, these Canadians have a great deal of talent in creating noise and industrial raw black metal with a surprising amount of depth and an incredibly martial attitude.  Hailing from St. Thomas, Ontario, its unlikely that they have much experience in the art of warfare, but hey, these Canadians, especially from the Quebec region, have a great deal of talent and intellectual militant views.  Something tells me that these guys have a great deal of humor involved in the creation of their music though (see:  Ultimate Dwarf Ale).

Unfortunately, though the band's career spans 3 years and now 9 albums and one split with Rotting in an Open Field, we haven't heard of them a single time until this effort.  Its with this said that we have no clue of the band's full expertise on previous efforts, but if this release is any idea of where they've been pushing towards, then long-time listeners have had one hell of a treat.  The band's infusion of black metal, noise, industrial, and sometimes death metal elements is truly unique, sometimes creating atmospheres that are hardly aurally sound much like their noise predecessors, and sometimes they can create industrial apocalyptic soundscapes like the Christopher Ziegler side-project Atomtrakt.  The band can even, surprisingly, mellow out enough to venture into the realms of dark ambience (see:  Stuck in the Gateway).  Then, even times there are infinitely more influences and styles the band touches on momentarily at strange moments.  Tree and the Nebula, for example sounds more like a blackened groove jam session than anything.  Absolutely strange.

Its surprising how the tabels have turned in the metal world.  Many of the more known acts on larger labels and even simple moderate labels just aren't anything unique these days.  There are exceptions in the world with labels like ATMF and Mercenary Music pushing boundaries daily, but few really get to the point where they're making something new, and more importantly, good.  It is the serious unsigned artists, those willing to put enough money into music to get amounts of pro CD-R's printed instead of pushing together a simple generic CD-R with printed artwork that are really pushing the boundaries of music these days, and Liver Cage is more than a testament to that.  There's a new underground emerging, and we're going to be right here on the forefront of that battle.  Excellent, and highly recommended release here.