The Joy of Disease

James Plotkin had already been moving toward ambient music a few years prior to The Joy of Disease, but this was the album that reunited his growing passions with the more famous hardcore art metal explorations of his Old Lady Drivers output. Typically, death metal and electronics resulted in an industrial sound. The Joy of Disease took things elsewhere, somewhere full of stabbing psychedelic guitar loops and a slow, steady swarm of almost goth-like dirge beats that was quieter than something of the Wax Trax! or Boredoms ilk, but also subtler and simpler, with an avant-garde touch of Bruce Gilbert-styled feedback minimal electronica. No real heart or consistency, but that never really seemed to be the point.