Album Review: Blanck Mass, World Eater

In a recent interview, British producer Benjamin John Power, aka Blanck Mass, said stating the obvious fact that the world is fucked right now runs the risk of sounding like a broken record. The rest of us may throw up our hands in exasperation, but Power has made a stunning album of some the freshest and boldest music I’ve heard in 2017.
The fourth Blanck Mass record starts like a wind-up music box from a horror movie with ‘John Doe’s Carnival Of Error’, before exploding into a ferocious blitzkrieg courtesy of ‘Rhesus Negative’, which is easily the most extreme thing Power has authored yet. 
World Eater is both a lament and a wake up call. The sleeve notes appeal to the listener to support local LGBT and Animal Rights organisations. ‘The Rat’, meanwhile, is supposedly about a certain orange-hued global figure who is taking a wrecking ball to decency and common sense. 
However, there is much more to World Eater than avant-garde experimental fury. Indeed, there are numerous blissful moments from the man who is also one-half of drone electronica duo Fuck Buttons. ‘Silent Treatment’ will make any dancefloor bounce, while the suite entitled ‘Minnesota / Eas For / Naked’ is simply breathtaking in its beauty and scope. 
World Eater is an album of the year contender that’s valiantly trying to make some sense of the mess we’re in.