Oh, how I love records like The Reverses, the newest album by Terra Tenebrosa, where a bunch of maniacs plays music which could probably be used as a soundtrack for The Room, a lavishly disturbing book by Hubert Shelby Jr. Firstly, you can’t just feel indifferent towards it; either you’ll love it or hate it, there’s no middle ground. Secondly, every possible attempt of understanding the music is doomed to failure, because crazy Swedes can’t be understood, all you can do is to listen to The Reverses and absorb it with every cell in your body.
The music is a strange mix of industrial, sludge, and avant-garde, accompanied by Cuckoo’s sick vocals. This is just a superficial explanation of what’s going on because the music on The Reverses is much more complex. It can be either classified as a masterpiece or just a bunch of turds put together to form an album; it depends on your view of modern extreme avantgarde music. For me, The Reverses is a masterpiece, a perfect blend of ambient sounds of The Tunnels and more direct approach to avant-garde sludge on The Purging.
Each and every song is disturbing to listen to, making you feel like s**t, like an entirely redundant member of society destined to die in some dark and filthy corner of Earth. But this feeling will also make you ruminate about the purpose of your existence, and if not committing suicide after the first listen, your mind will rise, realizing that not all is lost, that you still have a chance of achieving something in this world filled with walking manure calling themselves humans. Ok, I’m probably over exaggerating, but you get the picture. The Reverses is (like The Room) a nasty ride through the darkest corners of one’s mind, and should not be taken for granted.
There will not be any mention of particular songs because The Reverses should be viewed as a whole, only then you’ll be able to comprehend the magnificent scope of the record. The album is a perfect example of Gestalt principle, where the whole is much more than the sum of its parts. Go on and listen to it, it can get you on a brink of madness, but if you stay sane after the first listen, you’ll love every second of the album. A masterpiece of the extreme modern avant-garde recommended to all persons enjoying disturbing sounds, music that makes them feel uneasy and detached from this world while traveling through worlds of their own.
