Bestial Burden
by Pharmakon
Distributed by Sacred Bones Records
“It was as though my body had betrayed me, acting as a separate entity from my consciousness,” explains noise artist Margaret Chardiet in a press release about her sophomore album under the name Pharmakon, Bestial Burden.
Chardiet wrote a majority of the lyrics and music for the album while bedridden after an unexpected medical emergency and surgery right before her first European tour. The surgery, the fear, the fragility of life, would go on to become the anchoring concept that fuels Bestial Burden.
The album opens with the panicked panting of Chardiet on “Vacuum,” which as the title suggests exists in a vacuum away from everything else on the album, with the fear Chardiet feels as she breathes faster and faster rapidly turning into raw power.
Chardiet creates this power by making an album in which she is in complete control at every moment. No sound is without purpose. Every anguished scream destroys the listener. Suddenly, while listening to Bestial Burden, our own mortality becomes clear and that at any moment, this body we rely on could give out.
While the album is extremely noisy, distorted, and paired with a threatening concept, this may still be the best introduction to the noise genre for any newcomers. The lead single from the album, “Body Betrays Itself,” is essentially the closest noise music will ever come to pop, with a constant repeating chorus and conventional structure paired with its noises.
What works best about Bestial Burden though is Chardiet never feels like she is watering down the harsh genre for a wider audience. Chardiet’s terrifying screams are nearly incomprehensible but filled with pain in the vein of contemporary noise artist Aaron Dilloway, and the album is filled with the consistent onslaught of damning sounds that noise fans love.
Beyond that, the melodies seem more refined than a lot of other noise artists. On “Automumme,” there is a challenging high frequency throughout the track but it’s paired with a surprisingly simplistic drum beat that would not be out of place in a hip-hop track. It’s this constant duality of pop and noise art that makes Bestial Burden so rewarding to keep coming back to and exploring.
While there are the accessible moments, “Intent or Instincts” and closing track “Bestial Burden” are both album highlights because they show just how far noise can go. In the best way possible these songs are long, terrifying journeys, with no clear direction. They consume the listener and never let you catch your breath.
Bestial Burden is a high concept roller-coaster of emotions, pushing noise in new forward thinking accessible directions. Oh yeah, and listen to it loud. Really loud.
