Album Review: 5RVLN5 – The Black Mark (Self Released)

Dystopian and filth-ridden, depraved and enslaved…. This is the MO of 5RVLN5 (pronounced “Surveillance”), a disturbing yet captivating industrial project from the urban decay of Chicago. Masterminded by Chuck Clybourne (former guitarist/vocalist from doom metal Faces of the Bog), the project’s début album The Black Mark places a firm foothold in the listener’s attention and refuses to budge during its 20-minute runtime.

Those intimately familiar with – or wanting to get to know – Skinny Puppy, Godflesh, or Nine Inch Nails will find a whole lot to their liking with The Black Mark. It is out on March 13th 2020.

Industrial insanity, The Black Mark is designed to unsettle and from the very moment the uncomfortable drone of Fallen Angel begins it is clear it will succeed it its task. Even when it begins to resemble an actual piece of music, it doesn’t get any easier to wrap the head around it. The buzzing effects, the stretched screams of the vocals and booming percussion really hitting hard.

That strong sense of threat that surrounds this entire album really grows with the darker, slower and moodier Flesh. The Coward and the Whore is down right perverse in how it draws from the well of doom but warps it with industrial sounds and effects.

World of Filth is easily the most challenging of the five tracks though. The super down-tuned fuzz, screamed vocals and industrial groove is as nasty as an uncovered cesspit in the baking heat.

After that Funeral Song almost seems tame compared to that but it’s not. It’s another slab of filth that crawls on its belly through the muck death and decay of an industrial world.

5RVLN5 – The Black Mark Full Track Listing:

1. Fallen Angel
2. Flesh
3. The Coward and the Whore
4. World of Filth
5. Funeral Song

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