this is one of the first albums that got me interested in modern composition. as you can probably guess, the theme here is DEATH, and the music is decidedly dark and evil throughout. despite the excellent middle 3 pieces, the 2 showstoppers here are George Crumb's Black Angels and Mitia Shostakovich's 8th String Quartet. the first employs razor-sharp electric instruments and just about every conceivable modern string technique, while the latter is undoubtedly in the top 5 of all 20th century string quartets: written in Dresden in 3 days (!), unashamedly tonal and yet decidedly heart-wrenching (dedicated to the victims of "fascism and war", yet really his own epitaph as he planned on committing suicide around this time) and alien. the 2nd mov't (track 8) is singlehandedly responsible for my near absolute disdain of all things metal, and your litmus test for this disc; few things rock harder and raw-er. this is dark, nasty, scary, aggressive, across-for-the-hospital-down-for-the-morgue music.



please be careful, track 1 is a doozy