Cities of Glass

Montreal's AIDS Wolf return to making full-length releases after an EP, the psychotic Lovvers LP, Clash of the Life-Force Warriors, and their split with Athletic Automaton. Anyone familiar with AIDS Wolf's particular brand of noise has an idea of what to expect. For the uninitiated or traumatized, Cities of Glass (a paraphrase on Paul Auster's City of Glass? Who knows?) is more extreme than anything this quartet — two guitars, drums, and completely flip-to-wig city warbling and screaming from vocalist Claudia Deluxx — have issued before. A tad more rhythmic than Wolf Eyes, more mental than the Double Leopards, less goodwill-oriented than Sunburned Hand of the Man — and far less musical — these ten "songs" are drenched in aggression, hate, nihilism, and not much else. In other words, they sound a little bit like a less structured, less metallic version of the earliest incarnation of White Zombie (the band that made Psycho-Head Blowout and Soul Crusher). That's fine, an endurance listening test every once in a while is good for the soul and all, but it does beg the question as to who actually likes this brand of self-consciously mischievous aural sadism. Sometimes it's so full of its own self-indulgence and deliberate extremism it feels almost like evil. That said, AIDS Wolf tours internationally so someone must dig them — even if it's for the spectacle. Once upon a time the Sex Pistols pissed people off, so did Germs, Black Flag, Crass, and Throbbing Gristle, to name a few. This is far more infantile; buying a record like this strictly for pleasure is almost scary. For what it is, it works in spades: playing this at loud volume (the only way to play it really) will guarantee hostile looks from neighbors and visits from the local police and perhaps mental health inspectors. Go for it.