SOMA014 / WOLD
Freermasonry
2LP
Side A (18:16)
Opening 1:53
SOL 6:17
Free Goat of Leviticus 8:13
Annex Axe 2:33
Side B (20:53)
Dragon Owl Didacticism 8:45
Working Tools for Praxis 12:08
Side C (17:74)
Dry Love 3:13
Free Eyes 4:18
Freermasonry 10:43
Side D (16:01)
Concordant Body 16:01
Fortress Crookedjaw: poetry, discourse, composition, bass, devices, synth, and vocals
Obey: guitar on SOL and Free Eyes
Acrimonia: guitar, additional compositional work, and programming on Annex Axe
recorded in Regina, Moose Jaw, London, and Providence
produced, mixed, and mastered by Wold
visual art by S.F.J. Nicholl
concept by Wold
design by Stephen F. O'Malley
Freermasonry
Angle process has been severed,
I wait with the goat’s secret.
Maul crushes skull
On tiled ground.
Eigenheit; sky-eyed willful one,
Outside of them.
Statement from the Wold communique sent out following the completion of Freermasonry:
“Lyrically Freermasonry: consist 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