Hi, it’s been a bit. I would be remiss if I didn’t attempt to keep trying to get people into the more esoteric music I listen to, and seeing a split that promises exactly that brought me back here. The Dissolution of Eternity is a full-length split between Australian artists Whitehorse, a name completely new to me, and Uboa, an artist who I have become very enamored with as of late. Both artists create towering statements that challenge us to find meaning in the seemingly overwhelming barrage of sound, and in doing so draw analogs to the way we navigate an overwhelming world seemingly content to walk directly into its own destruction.

Whitehorse’s two monolithic slabs of reverberating doom open the album. Not plodding as much as marching towards their bitter end, the slow, cyclical percussive force of “Wringing Life” and “The Wait” bear the listener on waves of thick chords, bellowed vocals, and a wash of distorted noise. Normally when I describe something as “otherworldly,” I use it in the context of some feeling of ethereal beauty, but Whitehorse are otherworldly like an H.G. Wells story. Visions of society literally crumbling to ruin rise to the mind of the listener like so much dust and smoke, the intensity of the music contained within serving to keep you locked in the whole time.

Uboa’s half takes a much more direct approach to sci-fi by serving as an introduction to Xandra Metcalfe’s only-slightly-less-than-apocalyptic fictional universe. A story involving black ops kidnappings, psychic revolutionaries, and the struggle for queer liberation is given depth and life by Uboa’s now-signature mix of post-metal and industrial noise. It is a haunting listen, in both sound and message, but noise is about being challenging at its core and the best sci-fi succeeds because it draws parallels to the here and now. Xandra’s five songs on this release force us to confront the grim reality that too many around the world do in the face of ever more normalized bigotry and cruelty, and to fight back any way you can, even if that’s just staying alive out of spite.

The Dissolution of Eternity showcases two different approaches to how “noise” can be interpreted using the same base elements. Weaving between structure and formlessness, melody and cacophony, both find their own unique ways of expressing grief, outrage, and fear about approaching catastrophic finality. But when one world dissolves before you, another is waiting to be born in its wake and it is this desperate grip on hope that keeps Whitehorse and Uboa from succumbing to fatalistic tendencies. The fear is excruciating, but therein lies the answer.

— Vincent

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The Dissolution of Eternity is available now on Tartarus Records and Sweatlung. For more information on Whitehorse and Uboa visit their respective Instagram pages.