Review: Plastic Noose - 'Fractured Despondency'

PLASTIC NOOSE

'Fractured Despondency'

SELF-RELEASED

The début album, 'Zu Allen', from Scottish one-man misanthropic industrial project Plastic Noose was a very pleasant surprise. The brainchild of Snow King, the album took industrial metal and stripped it right back to its bare essentials. The result piqued a lot of attention, though the album as a whole was criticised for being a little repetitive. Fast-forward and Snow King's sophomore effort, Fractured Despondency' aims to up the game.

What is immediately noticeable on pressing play is the variety included in this album. Yes, it is essentially still stripped back and bleak, but there are many more ideas at work here. The songs don't rely simply on skeletal rhythms and hanging guitar notes to drive the songs as much as they did, instead favouring more complex arrangements. But best of all there is much more variation in the pace of the songs, which gives the album a much more assertive sense of presence.

Snow King has definitely been honing his ideas with songs like 'Going Down', 'Let All Mankind Burn', and 'Doomladen' building on the dance floor potential of songs on 'Zu Allen', such as 'Road To Perdition' and 'Slutcentric'. But the new results feel a lot more self-assured and complex than their predecessors.

Where Plastic Noose really flourishes though is in more ambitious songs like the hauntingly ambient 'Strontian' and the stunning 'Suicidal Crisis', which channels his Celtic Frost/Triptykon influences into a sixteen-minute-long doomy gem to round off the album.

With a more ambitious approach to his song writing has come the necessity for a more complex production style which has given the songs a nice spit and polish, but without losing its grungy charm. The mix tends to keep the vocals relatively low compared to the guitars and electronics, but with such a sinister style as Snow King's, this happens to work very well. However there are still a couple of points where the songs don't quite get the kick that is anticipated though, and sometimes the guitars sound a little flat, but this doesn't hold them back too much considering the catchy nature of the material.

The repetitiveness of the début has completely disappeared and the true scope of Snow King's ambitions are realised. 'Fractured Despondency' is a big step in the right direction in terms of quality for Plastic Noose that should easily bring a lot more attention.  

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Plastic Noose announce 'Fractured Despondency'

One-man misanthropic industrial band Plastic Noose, AKA Snow King, has announced the new album 'Fractured Despondency' will be released digitally and on limited edition CD digipak.

There are also plans to release début album 'Zu Allen & 'Fractured Despondency' together as a double limited edition Vinyl album in time for Christmas 2013.



The limited edition CD digipak is available for pre-order now through the Plastic Noose bandcamp page and includes one track to download now and the whole album digitally as well when it's released on March 27th 2013. 

For more information on Plastic Noose and to keep up-to-date with the latest releases, please visit the official website.

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Review: Plastic Noose - 'Zu Allen'

PLASTIC NOOSE

'Zu Allen'

SELF-RELEASED

The début outing from Scottish one-man-band Plastic Noose, is another one of those albums that has been floating around for a while that occasionally pops up and makes you take notice. A minimalistic style centred around big drum beats and distorted bass lines with , Plastic Noose has an old school kind of feel that balances industrial experimentation with extreme metal atmospheres.

The album kicks things off with 'Road To Perdition', a groove-laden sleazy industrial track with utterly compelling dance beats that should inspire a lot of bumping and grinding in the clubs. 'Snow King' on the other hand descends into almost doom metal territory with its Celtic Frost/Triptykon-esque construction and heavy guitars work.
The title track on the other hand returns to the beat and bass orientated industrial formula, this time with a more complex sound that makes good use of some gregorian backing vocals. 'Before The Lord' revisits the atmosphere of 'Snow King', albeit via a more ambient and soft manner that at first feels a little out of place with it's short length, coming across as simply a stepping stone to the next track. 'Slutcentric' again walks the sleazy industrial style by way of an early Nine Inch Nails drum line and an effective Gary Numan style chorus.
The penultimate track 'Lie Back' makes a detour into early-Laibach martial territory with it's militaristic drums and slow pounding synths underneath a spoken manifesto, which is interesting but lacks the same bite as the Slovenians. The final song, 'This Is Not A Grave' is a nine-minute industrial opus of chugging guitars and looping beats broken up by a soft interlude that, while quite repetative, still manages to hold the listener's interest throughout.

This is a first effort and it is impressive, with some great dancefloor tracks.  But it still lacks something. Perhaps it is the slow pace of the album, as it never really has that hard and fast track to break up the steady beats and pulses. It's by no means perfect, but for fans of sinister, sleazy industrial this will be a rewarding listen.

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