dominic fox on xasthur and black metal, questioning the "hauntological metal" angle

looking through my terrifying teetering cd stacks for something at the weekend i stumbled on a baleful-looking promo with a smeary black cover. on close inspection it turned out to be xasthur. seems i've had this CD for some while, unawares! if not for the title subliminal genocide ringing a bell i 'd never have spotted it, the band's logo being an inky glyph that's completely illegible. so naturally i gave it a listen. it sounds a bit like robin guthrie doing warm up licks on his guitar and FX rig, hampered by the world's most disabling migraine.