The latest offering from NY synth-death master Theologian, Some Things Have to Be Endured features eight tracks of punishing black industrial, apocalyptic darkwave frequencies and nerve-rending electronic deathscapes. The album is made up of collaborations between Theologian (a.k.a. Leech, also the mastermind behind the renowned power electronics outfit Navicon Torture Technologies) and a lineup of female vocalists from the industrial / noise realm and beyond, with contributions from Rachael Kozak (Hecate), Kristen MacArthur (Sewer Goddess), Rachel Maloney (Tonikom), Nikki Telladictorian (Prometheus Burning), Patricia Benitez (Fetish Drone), Gillian Leigh Bowling (Teloahqaal), Christiana Key (Delphic Oracle), Joan Hacker (Factoria), Shari Vari (Void Vision) and professional opera singer Melissa C. Kelly. The tracks shift from grinding sonic dread to ethereal coldwave beauty—blasts of rumbling, blackened synthcrush met with washes of haunting electronic melody—while remaining rooted in Theologian’s bleak, jet-black industrial sound. The LP edition of Some Things Have to Be Endured is limited to 500 copies on blood-red vinyl, comes in gatefold packaging with new artwork featuring the evocative and disturbing images of New York photographer Gretchen Heinel, and includes a digital download of the album. “Leech has crafted a monstrous, ghastly album of lurching rhythms and totally downer melodies—think The Cure’s Pornography remixed by Vatican Shadow.” —Aquarius Records
LP $17.50
12/09/2014
The latest offering from NY synth-death master Theologian, Some Things Have to Be Endured features eight new tracks of punishing black industrial, apocalyptic darkwave frequencies and nerve-rending electronic deathscapes. The album is made up of collaborations between Theologian (a.k.a. Leech, also the mastermind behind the renowned power electronics outfit Navicon Torture Technologies) and a lineup of female vocalists from the industrial / noise realm and beyond, with contributions from Rachael Kozak (Hecate), Kristen MacArthur (Sewer Goddess), Rachel Maloney (Tonikom), Nikki Telladictorian (Prometheus Burning), Patricia Benitez (Fetish Drone), Gillian Leigh Bowling (Teloahqaal), Christiana Key (Delphic Oracle), Joan Hacker (Factoria), Shari Vari (Void Vision) and professional opera singer Melissa C. Kelly. The tracks shift from grinding sonic dread to ethereal coldwave beauty—blasts of rumbling, blackened synthcrush met with washes of haunting electronic melody—while remaining rooted in Theologian’s bleak, jet-black industrial sound. Co-produced with Derek Rush (Dream Into Dust) and mastered by James Plotkin, Some Things Have to Be Endured contains some of the most moving and dramatic music to emerge from Theologian’s black sonic abyss, and comes adorned with striking photography by Ione Rucquoi that makes this one of the more visually arresting releases in the artist’s growing catalog.
CD $12.00
10/15/2013
MP3 $7.92
10/15/2013
On his debut album for Crucial Blast The Further I Get From Your Star..., Theologian mastermind Leech established a new trajectory for his unique brand of pitch-black, rhythm-heavy industrial music that he’d previously explored with Navicon Torture Technologies. Under this new name, the power electronics and death industrial influences were twisted into even darker, more majestic sounds, crafting something significantly more atmospheric, reaching into new extremes of experience. On Theologian’s latest, The Chasms of My Heart, this sound is perfected, incorporating more melody and percussion into the long, oppressive dead-world ambience and pummeling electronic doomscapes. Chasms opens with Theologian’s most stirring and evocative piece of music to date. Monumental end-time dirge “Abandon All Hope” starts off as a swirling ocean of blackened synthesizer roar before introducing pounding metallic percussion and skull-rattling bass frequencies. At first, it’s the sort of pitch-black, apocalyptic death-synth heaviness that Theologian has long claimed as its own, but when the layered vocals pour in, soaked in distortion and climbing skyward in a gloriously miserable multi-part harmony above an eerie, minor-key hook, it becomes something new. Like some kind of hellish fusion of industrialized shoegaze and thunderous power electronics, “Abandon All Hope” reveals a new side to Theologian’s black-hole sound that is explored further throughout these eight tracks. There’s no shortage of Theologian’s trademark black ambience here, though. The frantic, clanking rhythms on “We Can’t All Be Victims” becomes a backdrop to a maelstrom of monochrome drone and howling demonic noise, obscuring the nightmarish cacophony of...
CD $12.00
11/27/2012
MP3 $9.90
11/27/2012
Over the course of three albums and a number of other releases, New York's Navicon Torture Technologies blurred the edges of power electronics and dark industrial before ceasing operations in 2009. Now reconstituted as Theologian, Navicon mastermind Leech continues his exploration of the further realms of experience with a new form of blackened synth dread that combines the previous project's crushing electronic attack with increased heaviness and droneological power. Following a series of small-run collaborations with Wilt, Steve Moore, and The Vomit Arsonist released on Leech's own Annihilvs label, Theologian delivers their debut full-length The Further I Get from Your Star, the Less Light I Feel on My Face, a seven-track descent into roaring, cosmic drone, howling electronics, colossal industrial soundscapes and grim, low-end heaviness. The album draws from several strains of extreme music--Swedish death industrial, classic power electronics, dark ambient--and adds an underlying melodic presence; the music is harsh, often hellish, but retains an icy, desolate beauty. The Further I Get from Your Star comes packaged in a deluxe DVD-style digipack featuring Leech's striking artwork and visual design.
CD $12.00
11/09/2010
MP3 $9.90
10/26/2010
Released as a companion piece to Theologian's first official full length "The Further I Get From Your Star, The Less Light I Feel On My Face," "Charting the Schism" is a new half-hour mini-album that further explores Theologian's blackened architecture of abject suffering and orgasmic damnation. These five tracks delve deeper into rumbling obsidian nightmares with Leech's signature combination of Swedish death industrial influences, infernal power electronics and crepuscular electronic ambience. Opener "I" begins with a grueling death-industrial loop, all seething speaker-shred, austere starless murk and carnivorous warnings from beyond the realm of the Order of the Gash, grinding at the listener's subconscious like the rusted teeth of an ancient torture wheel. The following track "II" flows through the subsequent fissures, emerging as the fearsome roar of Leviathan, klaxon blasts emanating from the labyrinth while savage, howling vocals warp and whip overhead. Black, electronic tendrils explore nerve endings and fray synapses, dishing out some delirious, drugged slow-motion power electronics abuse. The third track delivers more crushing, droning power electronics, the massively delayed and processed vocal ecstasy riding on chthonic waves of distorted synthesizer whiplash and grinding machine throb. "IV" unleashes deep-space static waves that sweep through the infinite depths of space, crushing quasar impulses surging forth from wormholes and joined by looped percussive rhythms and buried tribal drums that rise and fall within this massive metallic power-drone. Finally, "I Am the Engineer" appears as a cold, black mechanical pulse shuddering through an abyss of monstrous sonic forms. Deep bestial...
MP3 $4.95
10/12/2010