When I was a child, I got an infection in my hip that skyrocketed my body temperature and made me hallucinate. One of them that I can remember is seeing what was in front of me and having everything divide into four squares and change placement, arranging themselves randomly. Your brain can do unsettling things when you’re not well.
Australian death/black metal beasts Ploughshare delve into similar territory (well, sort of) on their explosive third full-length “Second Wound,” a weighty slab that takes some patience and imagination to fully indulge. For these songs, the nameless mystery of a quartet use as an inspiration the 14th century creation Revelations of Divine Love by Julian of Norwich that is a Christian devotion inspired by visions she experienced when deathly ill in 1373. It’s a portrait of what she interpreted as levels of Christ’s love that she absorbed while not in her right mind, and the band adds a ghoulish, doomy, destructive edge to these texts. It’s a record that weighs down on you, forcing you to feel every moment like your feverish body is on the verge of collapse.
“Thorns Pressed Into His Head” is faster and more urgent, scorching and trampling as trauma guts completely. The bass curls as the vocals strangle, the playing worming into oblivion, savagery unwinding as devastation peaks, disappearing into the stars. “The Mockery of the Demons” brings burning guitars and quivering bass, the playing disorienting, fiery cries hurtling into the sun. Chaos spills over as madness ensues, panicked sounds turning back toward the storm, sounds droning into the earth. Howls echo as the bass bubbles, melting into discordance, cosmic winds chilling flesh. Closer “So Reverend and Dreadful” rips open, confounding as the playing dashes and scars, the crazed vocals going for the throat. Humidity thickens as sounds float on darkened clouds, a hypnotic fury torching flesh. The playing cools as noise penetrates, mind-altering passages fading into miasmal woes.
“The Fall of All Creatures” opens in dissonance and then roars, guitars angling as a wild push makes your brain send mixed signals. The bass bends as the speed becomes a bigger factor, smashing through a haze, the guitars tingling as the force continues to knife through to the vital organs. Manic cries ripple, a beastly rise consumes flesh, and sounds echo before evaporation. “Desired Second Wound” opens with the bass creeping through eeriness, guitars icing as howls rip, unleashing a numbing pace that makes it feel like you’re spiraling into a dream world. The pace dizzies as the band storms into progressive waters, howls destroying as the tempo reached tornadic force, storming until an icy front takes over. Sounds hang in the air as a strange aura simmers, the playing rumbling into a vortex that consumes whole.
The bizarre pressure and disarming messaging Ploughshare pack into “Second Wound” might date back to source material centuries old, but these themes and ideas still exist today. The reaching out to something beyond ourselves in states is extreme discomfort might reek of hallucination, but there are people who buy into it very deeply. This music is a reminder and visitation, a deep journey into the middle of a psychosis that often can’t be cracked and maybe even understood.
For more on the band, go here: https://www.facebook.com/INDOMITABLEPLOUGHSHARE
To buy the album (U.S.), go here: https://metalodyssey.8merch.us/
Or here (Europe): https://metalodyssey.8merch.com/
Or here: https://brilliantemperor.bandcamp.com/album/second-wound
For more on the label, go here: https://www.facebook.com/i.voidhanger.records/
Meat Mead Metal 