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Pharmakon's Devour: Art of Self-Destruction
15 Sep
Summary
- Pharmakon's new album explores the individual's response to global horrors.
- Devour confronts the unsettling theme of the self attacking the self.
- The album's live studio recording creates a sense of immediacy and momentum.
Margaret Chardiet's latest album as Pharmakon, titled 'Devour,' intensely explores the intersection of global crises and individual suffering. The artist uses her signature industrial soundscapes and raw vocalizations to confront themes of existential conflict and self-destruction. This new work is dedicated to individuals institutionalized due to societal problems like addiction and mental health challenges.
'Devour' was recorded live in the studio, with each side of the record a continuous session, enhancing its momentum and immediacy. Chardiet's vocals, from opener 'Homeostasis,' exhibit a new vulnerability, fraying against blaring electronics and deep diaphragm diaphragm singing. Unlike earlier works that evoked claustrophobia, 'Devour' radiates outward, like a cry into the void.
The album channels the artist's prowess in industrial music, transforming capitalist survival trauma into potent outbursts. Paradoxically, the chaos within tracks like 'Spit It Out' and 'Self-Regulating System' can induce a sense of calm by externalizing internal struggles, akin to the ouroboros symbol of self-creation through self-destruction. Pharmakon thus continues industrial music's tradition of finding truth within noise and negation.
