After a long string of releases on tiny labels like Hanson and American Tapes,
Dead Hills marks
Wolf Eyes' first effort for the larger Troubleman label, and it's a shocker, mating cold, rudimentary, electronic beats with terrifying feedback scrapes. "Dead Hills 2" is especially noteworthy: it nicely captures the ferocity of early
Swans, with its lumbering tempo and its vocals, which sound more like retching than singing. The other two tracks aren't quite as incendiary, but they're effective: "Dead Hills" establishes a suitably creepy mood with clouds of beat-less ambient noise, while "Rotten Tropics" is a bit like "Dead Hills 2," but with the vocals pushed a bit further into the background.
Dead Hills is an exciting, confrontational record that should appeal to fans of everything from death metal to
Merzbow to
Throbbing Gristle. ~ Charlie Wilmoth