Kurushimi’s EP Return 3: Death, the final instalment of the avant-grind act’s Return remix series.
Return III – Death takes Kurushimi into new territory with a slew of guest performances on the record. Besides Doug Moore’s (Pyrrhon) rattling shrieks over the complex instrumentals, Matt Hollenberg (Cleric, John Zorn’s Simulacrum), Malikoth (Sanguine Tithe), M. Refalæða (Ukryt, Verëvkina), Noah Souza (Those Darn Gnomes), Gene White (Usta, Serious Beak), Marc Whitworth (Five Star Prison Cell), Michael Taverner (Gvrlls) and Simeon Bartholomew (SEIMS) all provide their varying talents to the EP.
With Colin Marston on mastering (Krallice, Dysrhythmia, Gorguts), elements of drone and grind take the forefront in lieu of Kurushimi’s signature acid-jazz influences. The end result is a menacing display of riffwork as seismic droning riffs pulling the listener apart within a chasm of slow, heavily distorted madness.
“The title subject ‘death’ was chosen for a few reasons,” begins bassist and conductor Andrew Mortensen. “The original base remix element was taken from Shinigami from the debut, which means ‘death god’. Then with my mental state, the blackness of the planet and all that, I just felt I wanted to call it that. I’d also been listening to a lot of Earth, Sunn O))) and Khanate, so I had the idea of adding guitars – and before I knew it, I’d added various musicians to the mix and had created quite the beast.”
Running at a respectable 20-minute run time, title and opening track Return III – Death is pure, hulking carnage, created as a mutation of a smaller bass section from Shinigami off the band’s debut. Deep, distorted and slow riffs crack the earth around the listener, drums rip out into a gallop and abyssal vocals shriek out from beyond – creating a track drenched in Mortensen’s enthusiasm for ambient and drone.
Following the track Return III – Death comes The Cold Light of the Mirror, an outtake from the band’s What Is Chaos? sessions. Retained due to the unique drumming pattern, the track is notably faster than the opener, yet still balances a fine line between sludgy riffs and pummelling tempo.
“The subject of the lyrics is kind of a deliberate conflation or amalgam of all the malignant, self-replicating processes that seem to be running amok around the world these days, in both organic and digital varieties.” begins vocalist Doug Moore. ”I wanted to evoke the way that these feedback loops can appear actively malicious even though malice isn’t a moral category that really applies to something without sentience like a chain reaction. Humans and the things we value are substances to be ingested and processed for utility to them, though suggesting that they have a perspective anthropomorphizes them too much. At any rate, this subject matter seemed to fit the instrumental composition’s mixture of gradual dynamic change and twitchy iteration.”
Although releases for the band come few and far between, Mortensen hints at the possibility of another full-studio album, along with a future instalment of the Return series. In the meantime, sink yourself into one of the most adventurous drone releases for the year with an EP so fierce, it shatters eardrums like glass in yet another accomplishment for one of Australia’s most complex heavy acts.
