Merzbow - Triwave Pagoda (2021)

We've no idea how Masami Akita continues to enthrall after literally hundreds of albums, but he's cracked it again with "Triwave Pagoda". This time he rakes thru early electronic stylings with his typically full-throttle amplitude level, shrouding oscillator shrieks and dissonant wails in 12-foot walls of burn'd out noise and chugging metal dirt. U already know, right?

'Triwave Pagoda' is a spiral of anti-synth music that celebrates the untamed oscillator by ripping it to shreds and flogging it publicly. Split into two bite-sized 20-minute chunks, the album expands on Akita's ongoing interest in early electronics, layering harsh feedback over brain-rupturing drones and jagged blasts of tempered white noize.

There's nothing easy about this record, but neither is it simply harsh noise wall endurance. For each blast of ear-splitting feedback, there's just as much bleating "Forbidden Planet" bleepage and pineal-prodding computer malfunction bizz. Well good, honestly.