Until The Sky Dies – The Year Zero Blueprint

Sometimes, you just have to clear the party and throw your friends the fuck out of the room. Sometimes you have to work yourself up into an agitated state in order to tell your boss to go fuck himself, to relapse, or to betray a loved one. These inexplicable acts of anti-socialness aren’t things that “good people” do; they don’t move you ahead into a better place, but they move you on nevertheless. Now, Until The Sky Dies have made the soundtrack for such occasions.

This DGAF duo have made one of the year’s most WTF albums with their debut, The Year Zero Blueprint. Clearly, the group leans on the instincts of extreme metal, but Until The Sky Dies doesn’t brutalize listeners with blasphemous force so much as irritation and confusion. Just what kind of rickety country-death-folk jig is lead track “I”? (And is everyone executing that turn-round at the same time?) The mix on The Year Zero Blueprint is odd, too as if some joker went behind the mixing desk, deleted about half the tracks, then knocked around the faders for good measure. Elsewhere, as on “IV”, the music suggests radio transmissions from a remote galaxy — of the kind sci-fi post-punkers Chrome used to tune in — where apparently there’s no such thing as song titles.

Be forewarned: I absolutely cannot guarantee you will appreciate this singular album. Indeed, The Year Zero Blueprint is an example of the performative expression, which enacts the conditions it seeks to represents; just as declaring “I don’t love you” undermines a relationship, so too this album’s inscrutable cognitive chaos should alienate even most listeners. In this way it recalls the aesthetics of “noise music,” although Until The Sky Dies have the chutzpah to forego the critical comprehension of that style for a bizarre strain of heavy metal. In case I haven’t made myself clear: I really like this album… I think?  File The Year Zero Blueprint away for the next time you need to burn bridges.

The Year Zero Blueprint is out now on Cimmerian Shade Recordings.