Steel Hook Prostheses – Wounds Bathed In Piss Water DLP Breathing Problems Productions 2019
Wounds Bathed In Piss Water is not a new album by Steel Hook Prostheses, rather it is a reissue of an older obscurity. Originally issued as a CDr in 2007 in an edition of 100 copies on the Italian label Blade Records, few will have managed to hear this. The 2019 reissue has also been remastered for good measure. Generally, perhaps Wounds Bathed In Piss Water is less tonally sharp, refined, and clinical than current material from the group, but it nevertheless features the high calibre, US-style death industrial that the group assisted in defining. The medical obsessions remain as a thematic core, with smatterings of related dialogue samples. The vocals are heavily processed with smeared distortion, although their sound is not yet of the seething trademark style which would characterise later albums.
As a listening experience Wounds Bathed In Piss Water functions as a collection of individual tracks spanning three to six minutes each, allowing differing moods and sonic approaches to be explored. Graft is notable, with its blend of subdued death industrial and melancholic-tinged synths, over which the vocals feature in an upfront spoken style. Ether Dream also stands out with varied passages, swinging from fried static to machine rhythms with upfront vocals and onward to widescreen ambience. Rounding out the 11 tracks is Drifting Towards The Light, which – as the name might suggest – is a widescreen dark ambient affair of muted intertwining drones and deep echoed production. A bonus track has been added in the form of Hunting For Humans – Tribute To Schloss Tegal, which is a rather faithful, yet slightly more urgent, cover of the Schloss Tegal track of the same name.
With a high-gloss gatefold sleeve this is a solid release that fills a gap in the back catalogue, also illustrating the refinement of the group’s sound on subsequent releases following the original release of Wounds Bathed In Piss Water.
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