a blur about BDN on a website in 2002

BRIGHTER DEATH NOW Why 12, 2002 JINX

You can never know with Mr Roger K. If you thought that 1890 was the beginning of a new Death Industrial era in the BDN discography, hes here again to prove that we all are wrong once more; and I love how he cheats us, his embarrassingly servile followers, again and again and again. More when only a year back, his eBay only release, Proceeded to Death 12, limited to just 15 copies and on this same US label, was sold for one of those insane bidding prices causing vertigo to my wallet in this Net ages; and now one of the included tracks, Never again!, is featured in this new round piece, available for the rest of the mortals at a more or less reasonable price, despite the extremely brief length of Why and its 45 rpm. Oh, how I would love each of the included titles in the most ridiculously elitist edition in ages to be re-released periodically in successive BDN publications, humiliating each of those, oh, so fortunate acquirers

But its time to stop daydreaming: lets commence the analysis with the track whose title gives its name to the opus; or at least this is what I suppose, since the names are not printed in none of the sides and its impossible to discern which is which unless you were one of the chosen ones to get the first Jinx LP: obviously not my case. Feedbacks all around during both cuts, but this time rumbling in the background and appearing with outbursts of another high-pitched source, following a sort of random, sporadic paranoiac atonal melody from time to time, supporting the Sweden Beast while he proves his several vocalic registers and timbres, from evil deeper ones to the highest tops of a maniac. Of course, voice is absolutely essential to produce the perfect soundtrack for a lunatic asylum scene; a corrupted feeling emphasized by the sudden interruption of sound in the end.

And in the other side, an initial musical sample sounds for a very few seconds until the speakers puke the rest with a vast amount of superimposed layers of feedback with the voice of Karmanik, not too high in the mix, just screaming, yelling, howling, and in general desperately crushing his throat to death without an apparent sense in terms of speech till the emaciation; its just the supreme representation of dementia. And after all seems to be ceased, once the protagonist, exhausted, has stopped to take a breath and to moan, he still reunite once more his forces uttering the very last statement of the oeuvre: a final shriek remaining in the room, leaving our blood frozen within our veins when the needle has returned.

Summing up, two different executions for a similar classic scheme: feedback + voice.

At some extent, it can seem more or less obvious the fact that this a follower of the highly acclaimed May All Be Dead release, not only because of the harsh sound, but due to the strong Punk spirit contained here. If the cover in the double LP was a clear tribute to the Crass aesthetics, this makes eyes at the Discharge legend; hell, how much the artwork of this vinyl remembers its big brother, the 1981s Why 12! Not to mention the title of both tracks But conversely to May, as Ive mentioned, I can appreciate here a more emphasized classic, early 80s PE, flavour that I personally would refer to Whitehouse or even Sutcliffe Jugend (both quite Punk too, to say the least), an influence that we can remember was present in the latest CD, the controversial Obsessis.

Making the last considerations, the chronological proximity of the couple of latest vinyls, 1890 and Why, brings to my mind a precedent in the BDN career. I remember an interview made during the mythical Nights of Abyss CMI festival in Waregem (Belgium), back in 1997, by NFMs XIII (XIII: ests vivo?), where Mr K confessed that Necrose Evangelicum and Innerwar were made together, in a precise period of time where, the most extreme cuts ended in the Release edition, and the more atmospheric ones in the CMI one. Even Great Death III was recorded more or less during those years. Maybe this is what happened to these latest issues? Well, who knows, but at least this evidences that the artist has been proving simultaneously all his artillery of creative resorts in different boundaries from long time ago; so theres no reason for Why and this old dog to take most of audience by surprise at this point, huh? Shockingly, he still does, and I suppose thats what makes Brighter Death Now sooo adorable.

To conclude, well, a short mention to the peculiar cover which, apart from the stated Discharge reference, its surreal quality probably deserves and entire essay to be exposed. Simply because of its brilliancy, it alone would be reason enough for this purchase and to consider this piece of vinyl obligatory for you to proudly show it to your visits in your shelves. Please, Roger, cheat me one more time.

Marcos Alcocer