Sijjeel – Affiliation of Horrid Containment
“Just Because You’re All Making the Same Noise,
Doesn’t Mean What You’re Making is Music”
Written by Big Bear Buchko

I feel like I’ve cheated here with my review of Sijjeel’s new album - Affiliation of Horrid Containment, simply because I didn’t finish listening to the record. Actually, no, let me rephrase that… I couldn’t finish listening to this record, mainly because there was nothing of substance for me to listen to. We have seemingly entered a new age of extreme metal where the goal is no longer to make music or something that resembles songs; instead, merely producing a clumped together collection of pig grunts, blast beats, nonsensical time signatures, and punishing noise.

There is a rule to remember for those – such as myself – that write and record and produce metal, and that is… just because you’re all making the same noise, doesn’t mean what you’re making is music. Now, I can see the argument: “Musicians? Making music? P’shaw. The shit you say.” But really, no, it’s true, it happens, I’ve read about it in stories. For decades now, we have had the beautiful brutality of Cannibal Corpse, Dying Fetus, Death, and so many others, that prove you are perfectly capable of making extreme music sound like… well, music. You know, the audible thing that human beings enjoy. But now, with the wave of technical core d’jent core grind death core coming in, with bands like Sijjeel, Infant Annihilator, Lorna Shore, Cattle Decapitation and so many others, there is an abandonment of traditional musical form that I am absolutely refusing to embrace. The purpose of music is to enjoy it, not just tolerating it from start to finish. “Oh, man, that sure is a bunch of fucking noise I made it through. Can’t wait to never hear this again.”

For Sijjeel, I had hope. The opening “Intro” – besides the fact that I had my SkullCandy earbuds in way too deep and up way too loud – was amazing. It was a two-minute sojourn through complicated melody and layering that made me sit up straight and take notice, building an excitement in me for everything that was about to come. I was into it. And then, halfway through “Descendent Incertitude,” I’d become so bored and disinterested in the mélange of messiness being thrown at me that I ended up seeking solace in my Tinder account. (Hot older woman are in my area, I know it, I know it.) It’s not that they weren’t hard and heavy – they are, and in abundance. The problem is… that’s literally all they are. “How were the guitars?” I have no idea, they all sound like someone stuck a microphone in a fruit juicer.  “How were the drums?” They sounded like someone stuck a Vic Firth stick in the clenched teeth of someone having a seizure. “How was the bass?” Was there bass? I don’t think there was. “Well, then how were the vocals?” In the first song with vocals, the band actually pauses to highlight the singer belching out the first of many very trendy Count Dracula deathcore “blegh!” noises, which caused my eyes to roll so hard that they almost fell out of my head. It’s cheese done seriously, and I don’t care for it.

I skip ahead to “Abominable Captivation,” and my tenure here is even shorter. The nonsense and noise of this track is virtually identical to the one before it… and the one after it. And the one after that. And the one after that. I did finish the album, in a way, skipping and jumping and doing everything I can to find something – ANYTHING – that resembled music, or something different than what had turned me off before, and not once, in the ten songs that comprise Affiliation of Horrid Containment, did I find anything resembling music, or even something remotely enjoyable. I understand that we all appreciate the freakish talent of the musicians in this genre. I, for one, have probably watched the Aaron Kitcher “Cuntcrusher” drum cam video around eight dozen times in the last few months. But without structure, without melody, without song, the musical element is completely removed from that talent, and all that remains is spectacle.

If you’re a fan of faceless noise, soulless static, brutality without saving grace, then something like Sijjeel and Affiliation of Horrid Containment might be for you. As I take what I listen to, and music in general, much more seriously, I cannot honestly recommend even a second of this garbled, trashcan-banging headache fodder. What upsets me the most out of all this is that the members of the band are clearly and obviously talented… but they’re displaying it in a way that guarantees it will never be appreciated for anything other than a lukewarm sideshow minstrel act; the spectacle, hoping to God they go viral enough to actually pay their bills and cover the rent of their practice space. It’s like if Jimi Hendrix stuck with the kazoo.

It's just not for me.