Conduit

***New York City’s CONDUIT are the sound of an unstable nightmare metastasized into a violent aural world: harsh, hugely distorted, filthier than a clogged sewer, and spewing uncontrollable horror. Formed in 2015 by ALESSANDRO KEEGAN (TWIN STUMPS), ZACH ZIEMANN (Twin 
Stumps, POP. 1280), KEVIN BARRY (WHITE SUNS) and ANUJ PANCHAL (SQUAD CAR), the band’s first LP, Drowning World, progresses from the direction established by Twin Stumps and White Suns: deliberate, noise-ridden, hardcore-inflected dirges topped off with hopeless screams. In contrast to their previous endeavors, however, the band brings more structure, technique and refinement to the songwriting (witness the tortured, black metal-esque tremolo picking and twisted single-note runs of “End Times” and “Gilles de Rais”), and an increased emphasis on ambient, threatening atmospherics (the opening track “Saturn”). Perhaps Conduit’s most notable and least commented-upon talent is their way of making even the most damaged sounds subtly hypnotic. The hammering introduction on “Hypnagog” is initially jarring and uncomfortable; yet, within a few seconds, it becomes trancelike while remaining inherently vicious. Later, when the song settles into a strangled, punishing groove, the band sounds unstoppable. Conduit perform the same trick of making the destructive mesmerizing around eight to ten times throughout the album. With a mix from rising producer and musician BEN GREENBERG (Uniform, Pygmy Shrews, The Men) and engineering from punk legend WILL KILLINGSWORTH (Orchid, Ampere, Demonbrother, Failures), Drowning World frightens and intrigues in equal measure.