Album Review: Blackout Beach

By Tom Charles

4 Chancy's

TOP TRACK: "DROWNING PIGS"

BOTTOM TRACK: "TORCHLIGHTS BANNED"

Fuck Death, another release from Carey Mercer's solo project Blackout Beach, takes the listener on a voyage that walks the line of mortality.The debut single, "Beautiful Burning Desire," begins with a vivid sound collage before dying down into a choir of ghostly moans. Likewise, the album's most ambitious track, "Drowning Pigs," desper- ately clings to life, beginning in ominous silence aside from one simple, rhythmic pulse that echoes the human heart. The track builds power, but ultimately fades into darkness—a common motif for the record. Holistically, it's little wonder Mercer recorded the album on his own, because it's doubtful anyone else could have actualized such an eerie musical vision.