Fallujah - Undying Light

Angry Metal Guy 20

Item #: AMG-4165

Object Name: Fallujah—Undying Light

Object Class: [REDACTED]

Special Containment Procedures: At this time no reliable method of containment exists for AMG-4165, but efforts to prevent its spread via the proliferation of this documentation are currently underway. One (1) instance of AMG-4165 is stored in a standard containment chamber measuring 3m x 3m x 2.59m. At the center of the chamber is one (1) consumer-grade audio playback device and one (1) pair of high quality consumer-grade headphones. One (1) instance of AMG-4165 must always be queued on the aforementioned listening device for convenience of AMG Implements ov Torture personnel.

Should AMG personnel determine that there is sufficient risk of containment breach at any point during torture sessions, said personnel are to immediately enact Emergency Protocol Gamma-5. In the event of containment breach, AMG Mobile Task Force Zeta-6 (“Fallelujah Goats”) will immediately destroy the facility.

Description: AMG-4165 is the fourth full length studio album titled Undying Light by California-based atmospheric technical death metal band Fallujah. Credits on this recording are listed as follows: Andrew Baird on drums; Scott Carstairs on guitars; Rob Morey on bass; and Antonio Palermo on vocals. Similar bands to Fallujah are listed extensively on several online sources, mainly citing The Faceless and Obscura, among others. The connections this current iteration of Fallujah shares with those bands are tenuous at best.

Unlike AMG-4165’s predecessors, compelling guitar rhythms (referred to as “riffs”) are minimal and when present are highly derivative of those implemented by other entities (for example, the track named “Departure” features a riff that is eerily similar to those of Gastronomicon-era Slugdge), or consist solely of base “chugging.” Additionally, AMG-4165 is composed of individual songs so similar to one another that subjects often cannot differentiate between tracks. Vocals implemented on AMG-4165 are of radically different timbre and drastically inferior skill level than those present on earlier works.

Anomalous properties manifest in subjects who directly perceive output from an audio playback device accessing an instance of AMG-4165. Psychological deterioration caused by rapidly increasing levels of pain can be observed as early as ten seconds from the start of opener “Glass House.” Research notes by Torture Subject Kensington indicate that the irritating and one-note vocal components of the object were of particular concern. Continued testing confirms the vocals to be a significant source of distress in all subjects. Kensington’s notes on the object ceased approximately halfway through the first session (see Interrogation 4165-01).

In subsequent testing, subjects who were continuously exposed began displaying symptoms reminiscent of extreme psychosis. The mundane and overwrought drumming (“Sanctuary”), the complete lack of memorable guitar leads and melodies (“The Ocean Above”) and the cacophonous nature of the mix (“Distant and Cold”) are considered primary contributors to this effect. Subsequent interviews with recovering subjects indicate that very little contained within AMG-4165—beyond one riff in “Hollow” and one decent solo in “Eyes Like the Sun”—is of any consequence whatsoever, and that this is what subjects perceived as the source of their suffering.

Interrogation 4165-01

Interrogator: Implement ov Torture [REDACTED]
Interrogated: Torture Subject Kensington

[REDACTED]: Your notes on four-one-six-five. They end rather abruptly. Are you going to tell me why or am I going to have to beat it out of you?

Kensington: I couldn’t bear it anymore. The pain. Th—the sound, searing through my brain like a thousand angry bees! I felt fr—frothing at my mouth, my mind overcome with solid red. It was like I was rabid or something. If I didn’t get out of there I…well…I can’t honestly say what I would’ve done.

[REDACTED]: It is your duty to provide detailed notes and descriptions! You WILL detail them to me at once. Don’t make me get the cattle-prod!

Kensington: There is not much else to detail! Just when I thought things were getting slightly more interesting on “Hollow,” which actually had a real riff for once, everything just becomes an amorphous blob of screaming and chugs again. It’s unrecognizable as either Fallujah or tech-death. That’s not even considering how the waveforms are so hopelessly bricked I could probably kill a man with one. Please don’t make me go back to that…that thing!

[REDACTED]: If you wanted mercy, then you are in the wrong line of work. Return to the chamber and do your damn job!

Upon returning to the containment chamber, Torture Subject Kensington displayed rapid and severe psychological deterioration. After ten consecutive and full exposures to the object, Kensington succumbed to the object’s full effects and was declared deceased. Post-mortem places cause of death as massive, self-inflicted blunt force trauma to the skull. His remains have been disposed of and a new torture subject selected from the latest pool of recruits. –Implement ov Torture [REDACTED]

Rating: 1.0/5.0
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: 271 kbps mp3
Label: Nuclear Blast
Website: facebook.com/fallujahofficial
Releases Worldwide: March 15th, 2019

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