Harsh electronic noise from the home of serial murderer and cannibal Ed Gein. In the howling one-man wall of noise tradition, Custodian brings eight untitled tracks of painful live noise and power electronics. Never once does he break into beats or a chorus, it's just no frills actions between violent screams and pounding collisions. Custodian will most certainly appeal to fans of new school kings of Harsh Noise such as Prurient and Wolf Eyes, but with a fairly original aesthetic and a sound that never ventures into imitation of any one other artist.
This release is harsh and filled with feedback through the entire 30 minute duration. For the style of music that this is in, it is a varied and interesting release that is full of personality. With no song titles or iconic artwork to go on, Custodian brings a surprisingly large amount of originality to the table that makes this release very enjoyable to listen to. This artist seems to be purely interested in the harsh audio treatments that he is bestowing upon the listener and little else.
Track 8 opens with a little something different, an intro that is a little bit more dynamic, and quickly coalesces into several harsh noise squalls vying for importance. They meet in a very pleasant crunching sort of bass sound that carries the majority of the power within the track. For a release that has a very minimal name and almost no artwork, this really stands out as an interesting noise release. This is an artist that we will hopefully be hearing more from, and this release comes highly recommended for those who enjoy harsh crunching electronics like Black Leather Jesus as well as histrionic one-man screaming noise such as Prurient. Minimal harsh electronics that are primarily very abrasive and high pitched, with a really killer last track to tie it all together. I hope that it is a picture of things to come, because a more dynamic release by this artist would be very interesting to hear. Seek out and find this release, and ask for more, and hopefully Custodian will stay faithful to this level of quality.
-Heathen Harvest Webzine