- Two of the most extreme artists on the roster of one of Australia’s most extreme, experimental labels, have found each other. Uboa and Bolt Gun are both alumni of Art As Catharsis, although their two track, co-self-titled crusher is, apparently a Bandcamp only, indie affair. It’s been apparent for a while that Uboa at least is too prolific for any label to keep up and now, it seems, that influence is rubbing off on those around her.

Why not? Melbourne noise artist Xandra Metcalfe aka Uboa, already has a lot in common with Freo outfit Bolt Gun. The latter are a four-piece that run an unexpectedly wide gamut, between black metal, doom, noise, drone, post-rock, ambient and even spacey jazz. You can hear them do most of those things on their enormous, fifteen minute contribution. Starting out in febrile, spitting distortion, proceeding to deranged screaming, widening the guitar and synth textures out into something truly awe-inspiring and instead of providing a brutal foundation of blast beats, giving it a gently glittering wash of cymbal and jazzy swells from the kit. The vocals subside and the band focus on going full-reverse-post-rock, steadily decrescendoing into ambience, before devoting the final third of the cut to a sweet sax solo that would do Divide And Dissolve proud.

Perhaps the most impressive thing about Xandra Metcalfe, other than the raw volume of noise she produces is that she can do all of those things and more and regularly does, without any need to call on a band.  Here she echoes the initial thunder and screaming of Bolt Gun but utilising a more synthetic approach for her even more ominously titled The Slow Cancellation Of The Future. To this she adds the same scrapyard, found-percussion she employed on her previous record, The Origin Of My Depression. The murmured spoken-word and Julianna Barwick-style layered vocal harmonies are familiar affectations too. A new development is the clarity with which you start to hear her exhausted voice: “Let her have her misery / At least a mark will be made / A cut in this stupid, flat continuity our lives have become / Please help her burn, please help her bleed / please help her do anything but continue existing.” Unlike Bolt Gun, Uboa won’t go quiet into the good night, turning the volume back up; not to truly destructive intensity however, but instead introducing a surprisingly melodic synth line in amongst the pulverising distortion. My reference points for her work are becoming a bit fixed, but, again, this reminds me favourably of Swans.

For all their characteristics in common and precisely because that includes their ability to bring real diversity to the crushing monolithic character of doom and noise, Uboa and Bolt Gun have created two cuts that, from undeniably similar blueprints, produce pleasingly different results and both completely justify their own massive runtimes. I thought I already knew that heavy music was going through a fruitful period, but two of Australia’s heaviest have come together and shown me more.

- Chris Cobcroft.