Sleepless, restless, endless nights bleed into days of silent, frantic fear.
You are weary to the bone, crawling your way through new black depths of fatigue and exhaustion, but the crushing tiredness never collapses into that desperately desired state of peaceful oblivion. You can’t focus, you can’t think because there’s a monster on your horizon, scratching at the corner of your eye – unheard, unseen but ever present. Your pounding heart tells you that the beast is coming and the dread rises inside you, like water in a tank and you know you’re about to drown…
Anxiety is a small word behind which hides a vicious, feral creature that gnaws at the nerve endings with a relentless hunger. It consumes your energy, like a ghoul sucking the marrow from your aching bones. It wraps you in a cloak of impending doom, choking you with indefinable fears.
sometimes just heavy is what is needed”
Michael Jon White has spent most of his life clasped in this poisonous embrace and xygrbryrx (pronounced zye-ger-bry-rex) has become his release. When his internal struggle collides with an external world that grows more bewildering and hate-filled by the day the result is an explosion of vitriolic, grinding extreme metal. Cunning Punts is his latest sonic sculpture, a twisted mass of rage and fury, jagged riffs and venom. Aside from the deceptive sweetness of opening track ‘Lullaby For The Undeserving’, Cunning Punts is a battering attack from start to finish, an unapologetic, remorseless assault screaming in the face of intolerance. Commenting on the unwavering aggression of Cunning Punts Michael states simply “sometimes just heavy is what is needed” and who could argue with that?
Following on directly from the multi-faceted complexity of xygrbryrx’ debut album Grindstone, which strives to explore the daily struggles of those who suffer from mental illness, Michael sees Cunning Punts as “a palate cleanser”, a savage detonation of extremity, a primal roar of brutality. Featuring a searing guest guitar solo from Joe Tal (Crown Compass, Illucinoma, ex-Textures) and visceral artwork that captures the raw emotion of the music, produced in conjunction with Clarie-Marie Hampton, Cunning Punts is Michael Jon White and the xygrbryrx beast at their most violent and unforgiving. Behind this door lies pure, unadulterated rage…