Caustic
Fiend I
self-released
Minus a few EPs, some interstitial releases of remixes and Patreon backer exclusives, it’s somehow been seven years since Caustic’s last proper LP 2018’s American Carrion saw the light of day. Of course the cult industrial project’s Matt Fanale has hardly been inactive; between his work as one half of Klack with frequent collaborator Eric Oehler, and his own explorations of dance music under his daddybear moniker, hardly a month has gone by without some missive from the Wisconsin-based producer and performer. Still, Caustic is Fanale’s first and most personal project, one that has evolved from its half-serious powernoise beginnings into its current omnivorous industrial form, which has always reflected both his sensibility as a performer and producer, and where he finds himself situated in the current social and political climate.
Fiend I is the first of a two-album cycle that Fanale has loosely described as the “‘manic’ to the ‘depressive’ of Fiend II“, a distinction that suggests that this is where his rawest and most aggressive material will be found. And while you do get your share of songs featuring Fanale’s bowl-you-over momentum and acerbic wit, that’s not the only thing going on amongst its eleven tracks. Sure, you get songs like opener “Rhythm is a Cancer” which is textbook Caustic with its hard-bitten DIY production and kick-in-the-door vocals that invoke Jambi from Peewee’s Playhouse, and the desperate, barely on-the-rails cover of Nick Cave’s “Thirsty Dog” that fit the classic Caustic mould. But you also get the surprisingly nimble big-beat influenced acid workout “Problematic”, and the classic Wax Trax-by-way-of-G-funk rhythms of Muse En Lystrala feature “Not Going Anywhere (Use Your Delusion)”. It’s none of it ‘chill’ per se, but it’s not balls out unfettered hostility either.
Like so much of Fanale’s best work, Fiend I addresses the specific struggles that face him, now a middle-aged father navigating an increasingly unstable social landscape. The tumbling breakbeats of “Little Pharma” find him zeroing in on the ways that drugs, both literal and metaphorical, increasingly define modern American existence, while the speedy “Pushing Rope” has him lamenting lost motivation and past glories, spitting out “It’s not a groove/It’s a rut” with utter contempt. Interestingly even the instrumental tracks have plenty to say about his plight; the one-two of “”I love you, Matt, but fuck off.” (Ritual Self-Destruction)” and “Car Crashing in Slow Motion” address how our own failings impact our loved ones and ourselves, each taking on a different palette and tempo, but arriving at the same, difficult to ignore conclusion.
If you ever wanted to understand why it is that Caustic has maintained such a loyal following as a live and recorded act, the answer should be apparent when you listen to Fiend I. It has funny moments, and some raw fist pumping anthems, but it’s also relatable, a commitment to existing as your unvarnished self in a hostile world that seems increasingly governed by artifice and insincerity. While Matt Fanale might not be the same man he was when he adopted a flaming effigy as his logo, it’s never not been appropriate. He sets the fire, the dross is purged, and you’re left with something that sounds tangible, urgent and genuine. Long may Caustic burn.
