Dive Into Grueling New Harsh Noise Soundscapes From Pathogens Exclusively Here

On March 13, the Seattle-area harsh noise and soundscape artist Pathogens will drop a new three track tape called Soiled Cogs Forever Grinding via Scry Recordings. Get an exclusive first listen below to the first single!

Ominously titled “Hollow Eyes,” the just over nine minute long newly available track feels, quite simply, grueling — but in some strange, otherworldly way, it’s also captivating, like this captures what we must confront. Perhaps the persistence of the sound helps deliver a feeling that there’s just no option other than to listen — it’s like, as the artist themselves has commented, a sonic encapsulation of inescapable human doom.

The track begins with and mostly runs on a bubbling stew of nauseating, thick-toned sonic muck. It’s a meaty, repeatedly drawn out series of tones that erratically surge and retract over and over again. Listening feels somewhat like what gradually falling through increasingly suffocating quicksand must be like — there’s no breathing room, no empty space, just the devilishly snaking, crushing tidal waves of this brutal sound.

In the first parts, shrill, piercing tones break through the haze somewhat, but that thick sonic muck remains at the core, the sheer weight of which feels well-poised to seep right into the psyche. It’s the soundtrack to a nightmare — if there’s something that sounds like the aftermath of all hope and light getting mercilessly crushed out of some creation, “Hollow Eyes” is it.

As the track dies down, some of those more piercing tones eventually build into a larger portion of the mix, and brutally distorted vocals that sound like some drawn out screams echoing across a frigid wasteland also pop up. As the shrill cacophony and ominously contorted vocals take over by the end, the final moment dials everything else back but the sickening line: “They died.”

Overall, Pathogens features A.D. Carter using manipulated samples, distorted synth, found objects and contact mic recordings, electronic drums & percussion, electric guitar, voice, and throat.

Check out “Hollow Eyes” below. Click through for pre-orders!