The cover art for the Body’s new album, I’ve Seen All I Need To See. Credit: Courtesy the artist

Categorizing the doomsday sonic bludgeon wielded by Providence duo the Body over their two-decade reign of terror isn’t an easy task. Guitarist and screamer Chip King and drummer Lee Buford slice and dice doom, sludge, noise, and avant-metal into a monolithic, nails-on-chalkboard wall of sound. Buford’s hip-hop-mangled thumping and pounding and King’s six-feet-under caterwaul could carve out a niche for the duo all on their own, but they only occasionally create their bleak and heavy hellscapes alone. The Body thrive on collaboration and community, welcoming guest vocalists such as Chrissy Wolpert (Assembly of Light Choir) and Kristin Hayter (Lingua Ignota) and collaborating in the studio with fellow outsider noiseniks, including Uniform, Full of Hell, and Thou. And for 2019’s Remixed, the Body handed over some of their crushers to Moor Mother, Moss of Aura, Container, Lingua Ignota, and other soundscapists to put through the grinder. The Body’s previous studio album, 2018’s I Have Fought Against It, but I Can’t Any Longer, is strangely uplifting and even somewhat melodic—its damaged electronic beats and orchestral-metal sprawl are highlighted by sharper production than usual for the group. But their new record is its polar opposite: I’ve Seen All I Need to See is a thunderous chunk of unfettered brutality and primal noise, as terrifying as it is revelatory. King and Buford enlist some of the usual suspects as guests (Wolpert on piano, vocalist Ben Eberle of Sandworm), and they also get help from drummer Max Goldman and engineer Seth Manchester, who adds drum programing and keyboards. But this isn’t a hybrid effort—it thoroughly and completely embodies the core duo’s relentless vision. Opener “A Lament” immediately sets a harsh and hefty tone, driven by the feedback blasts that power all eight of the album’s deliberately plodding tracks. Monster drumming anchors the rumbling distortion and squawking of “Tied Up and Locked In,” “Eschatological Imperative,” and “The Handle/The Blade,” while the freewheeling fits and spurts on the unpredictable closer, “Path of Failure,” display a touch of free-jazz mettle. On I’ve Seen All I Need to See, the Body mine the darkest of places, trading much of the form and structure of their previous albums for distortion-dripping, amp-busting salvos that can flatten walls with their whiplashing intensity.   v