Album review: Uboa / Whitehorse - The Dissolution of Eternity. A crushing manifesto of feedback and existential dread. By Mark Jenkins.
The Dissolution of Eternity
Uboa / Whitehorse Split
A crushing manifesto of feedback and existential dread. By Mark Jenkins.
Tartarus Records / Sweatlung - 2025
5/5 Apocalyptic skulls.
When the universe finally collapses in on itself, it won't be with the bang of supernovas or the whimper of heat death—it'll sound exactly like this unholy matrimony between Australia's most uncompromising sonic terrorists. The Dissolution of Eternity, released August 29th, 2025, isn't just a split; it's a manifesto written in feedback and existential dread.
Whitehorse opens this apocalyptic diptych with two towering monuments to obliteration. Wringing Life and The Wait don't plod—they march toward their bitter end with the inexorable force of tectonic plates grinding civilisation to dust. The Melbourne quintet has perfected the art of atmospheric sludge that feels less like music and more like witnessing the slow-motion collapse of industrial society. Pete Hyde's vocals don't just emerge from the mix—they claw their way out of some primordial tar pit, each syllable weighted with the gravity of planetary extinction.
The production here deserves particular mention—recorded at the Black Lodge in 2017 but mixed years later by Xavier Irvine and mastered by James Plotkin—this isn't just heavy, it's geologically dense. Every chord hangs in the air like smog, every drum hit reverberates with the finality of a coffin lid slamming shut. This is otherworldly music, but otherworldly like H.G. Wells—visions of society literally crumbling to ruin rise like dust and smoke.
Then Uboa arrives to pick through the wreckage with surgical precision. Xandra Metcalfe's contribution serves as an introduction to an only-slightly-less-than-apocalyptic fictional universe involving black ops kidnappings, psychic revolutionaries, and the struggle for queer liberation. Where Whitehorse destroys through brute force, Uboa dissects with scalpel-sharp industrial noise and post-metal precision. The five tracks here function as both sonic terrorism and political manifesto, each composition a weapon forged in the furnaces of marginalisation and wielded against normative oppression.
The genres listed—Death Industrial, Atmospheric Sludge Metal, Drone Metal, Electro-Industrial—read like a taxonomy of human suffering, but that clinical description fails to capture the visceral impact of experiencing these sounds in sequence. This isn't music to headbang to; it's music to contemplate the void while the void contemplates you back.
What elevates The Dissolution of Eternity beyond mere sonic brutality is its refusal to wallow in nihilism. Both artists find unique ways of expressing grief, outrage, and fear about approaching catastrophic finality, but maintain a desperate grip on hope that keeps them from succumbing to fatalistic tendencies. In an era where extreme music often mistakes misanthropy for profundity, both Whitehorse and Uboa understand that true transgression lies not in celebrating destruction, but in finding reasons to survive it.
The mastering work by James Plotkin—a name that should guarantee quality in any extreme music release—ensures that every crushing low end and piercing high frequency serves the greater narrative. This isn't just loud; it's strategically devastating.
The Dissolution of Eternity stands as essential listening for anyone who believes that extreme music should do more than just pummel—it should provoke, challenge, and ultimately transform. In the hands of lesser artists, this collaboration might have devolved into a mere exercise in volume worship. Instead, we're gifted with something far more dangerous: music that forces us to confront uncomfortable truths about our world's trajectory while offering the faintest glimmer of hope that another world might rise from the ashes.
When eternity dissolves, make sure this is on your turntable. You'll want a soundtrack for the end times.
For fans of: Author & Punisher, Gnaw Their Tongues, Primitive Man, The Body, Full of Hell
Essential tracks: THE WHOLE RELEASE FROM START TO END.
Available on LP, CD, and cassette via Tartarus Records and Sweatlung.
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ANTISOCIAL SHIT:
Reviewed by Mark Jenkins for Devil's Horns Zine. "Bringing you the music your parents warned you about since 2018 "
PLEASE REMEMBER, SUPPORT THE ARTISTS (AND US) BY SPREADING THE WORD, FOLLOWING US ON SOCIAL MEDIA AND REPOSTING OUR WORKS...SUPPORT THE UNDERGROUND AND OUR COMMUNITY. THERE ARE NO COMMERCIAL GAINS.
It’s like if you want to use this music purely as agro, then fine, because it is very fucking violent, aggressive music. It’s just that the common misconception is that I wanna go out there, or this music is made to go out there and fucking damage people. That’s the misconception.
Justin Broadrick, Godflesh
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