PHILIP H. ANSELMO & THE ILLEGALS - "CHOOSING MENTAL ILLNESS AS A VIRTUE" (2018)

PHILIP H. ANSELMO & THE ILLEGALS - "CHOOSING MENTAL ILLNESS AS A VIRTUE"
(Running time: 46:28 minutes; 10 songs)
("Season of Mist" & "Housecore Records"; 2018; CD):

Hey guys, yes, again after too many days I am finally back @ work again up here. Guys, in all honesty, I am damn sorry but currently I just simply don't get it done to find or make the time to do finally some more new stuff up here again with still all the time far too much hectic and stress in the 'real life departments' right now and also the two already last month announced bigger posts are still overdue, I know, but trust me when I say that I'm still 'at it' and I hope to bring them finally up as soon as possible and for right now untill then and so far I will be happy enough when I finally bring this new post up and online still today respectively tonight, yes, and so here we finally go again: Today respectively tonight you will get my record-review on the new full-length-album of/by PHILIP H. ANSELMO & THE ILLEGALS titled "CHOOSING MENTAL ILLNESS AS A VIRTUE", released (if I now remember it correct) pretty much exactly two months ago sort of in/at the middle of February 2018 via "SEASON OF MIST" and "HOUSECORE RECORDS" and being wrapped-up in an incredible gorgeous digi-artwork. I was and still am a big, a huge fan of the debut "WALK THROUGH EXITS ONLY" of/by PHILIP H. ANSELMO & THE ILLEGALS (released back then five years ago in 2013) and so I was really curious to get my hands on the then finally released successor release and then... and then I was pretty much confused, at least a bit, because while all the Sludge Core influences and the pissed off extreme Hardcore notes where already on the debut very prominent all this harsh and devastating, bloody reigning and rotten Death Metal paired with some ice cold slaying Black Metal marks are pretty much completly (more or less) new here on "CHOOSING MENATL ILLNESS AS A VIRTUE", yes, and so (again like in the case of the above mentioned debut back then) I needed some time and it took me some listens to really get 'this all here' and before I really started to discover this pretty blocky and demanding, harsh and challenging but or and above all incredibe brutal, extreme, nicely clichèe-free, and rousing album in all its sick and twisted, sinister shining glory. PHILIP H. ANSELMO & THE ILLEGALS created with "CHOOSING MENATL ILLNESS AS A VIRTUE" a really sick'n'twisted, distorted'n'distorting and evil droning as well as crusty shredding bastard out of nihilistic'n'apocalyptic Sludge Core, absolutely demolishing and extreme and metallic as well as by crusty'n'noisy Punk fueled Hardcore, 'devastatingly distorted and distorting' Death Metal, and some few hatefilled and ice cold slaying really bitter and harsh Black Metal, all done very, very extreme as well as truly damn independently/self-conatined and maybe best loosely to be located somewhere between EYE HATE GOD on the one side, ARSON ANTHEM and some RINGWORM on the other side, all wrapped up by schizophrenic GORGUTS styled Death Metal (not on that over absolutely every top let us say 'proggy' level but in that insane and harshly extreme tradition), all cultivated by some few icy (early) DARK THRONE marks and all made round by some SUPERJOINT RITUAL impressions, yes, somewhere in between all this devastating noise you will find PHILIP H. ANSELMO & THE ILLEGALS cooking their very own sort'n'taste of crusty and thick dark soup. The songs carry a lot of emotional weight and are 'highliest' intense and interwoven through'n'through by a very sinister and psychotic atmosphere that really breathes life into the harsh delivered, blocky arranged and demanding composed, challenging songs that offer a lot of strong ideas, fresh surprises, and really demanding twists'n'turns all along the way. Driven forward by the brutal and charismatic lead vocals (brutal grunts and harsh shouts go hand in hand and some sick screms round it all up) and the multi-facetted but all the time incredible heavy and aggressive slaying'n'shredding guitars and all is then backed up beefy and bulky by the full power bass work and the massively smashing and stunning drumming. Strong and outspoken lyrics, an already mentioned fantastic artwork, and a heavy and dirty production-sound then round it all finally up. Sadly some songs just loose a bit of their focus and get lost on their way somewhere in their own noisy droning and über-aggressive 'destructiveness' and you really should prepare yourself to invest your time and yourself quite a bit into this highly extreme and insane, sick and psychotic harsh and also really damn strong album, yes, but then you definitely find yourself a really convincing brutal and extreme manifest of 'self-catharsis' and in all honesty I can only recommend this highly authentic and by all means just damn massive one here to you, period. So, yes, go out and get if you should still don't call it your own. And, yes, it's really, really good that Philip H. Anselmo is finally back again.

(9 of 10 points)

http://philanselmo.com/theillegals/ (-the link to the homepage of the band)

PHILIP H. ANSELMO - "THE IGNORANT POINT" (2018, "CHOOSING MENATL ILLNESS AS A VIRTUE")