WOLD

Lyrically Freermasonry consists of a series of poems and discourses. Early on in Freermasonry during 'SOL,' the Mother allusion is referenced out of Faust Part Two. It's a small portion and short moment. Faust does an invocation to the Mothers, but the execution is as trickery through occult charlatanism and not truly believed ritual. Goethe found passages about dark goddess figures known as Mothers in the writings of Plutarch. The metaphor is ambiguous, generally associated with creative dark force and will, but reared in a potent lie. I use it in correlation with screech owl as atheistic reactionary sentiment. Of course there are many other aspects to Freermasonry." Fortress Crookedjaw

"This is all to say that Freermasonry -- the obliterative sixth album from Wold, the Saskatchewan act led by the incredibly named Fortress Crookedjaw -- is ultimately enigmatic and entirely unknowable, an intersection of noise, metal, and electronics that doesn't yield to such plainclothes criticism. Mean, dense and multivalent, with a lyrical conceit based on Masonic symbolism and Biblical scripture, it's the rare loud music that begs to be louder still if you're to have any chance of understanding it. Freermasonry is a case study in controlling the illusion of chaos, an elegantly constructed nightmare of sound where hearing one layer of serrated screams, static bursts, and feedback flares means you've missed some mass of activity somewhere else. Weirdly seductive rhythms tumble beneath a laundromat of blown-out tones and crackling vocals, generally pulling your attention a dozen different ways. I've been listening to the album consistently for three months now, and somehow, I'm still surprised by what its 58 minutes sound like and accomplish. Paradoxically disorienting and direct, Freermasonry is a constant tumult of surprising activity, more unforgiving than most everything in the noise, metal, and drone scenes, places where Wold kind of fits." --Grayson Currin, Pitchfork (8.3); Members include: Fortress Crookedjaw (poetry, discourse, composition, bass, devices, synth, and vocals); Obey (guitar on "SOL" and "Free Eyes"); and Acrimonia (guitar, additional compositional work, and programming on "Annex Axe"). Housed in a gatefold sleeve.