Devour

Pharmakon - Devour
Critic Score
Based on 9 reviews
2019 Ratings: #115 / 805
User Score
Based on 132 ratings
2019 Rank: #724
Liked by 3 people
August 30, 2019 / Release Date
LP / Format
Sacred Bones / Label
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CRITIC REVIEWS

90
Loud and Quiet
Not only does this record capture the force and rhythmic energy of a Pharmakon performance, it’s a stunning evocation and confrontation of a somatic experience of the times we live in.
80
AllMusic
Like everything else Pharmakon does, this is almost unbearably intense, but in a way that resonates deeply and is almost soothing, as if the only way to justify the horrors of living is to elevate one's self into the most chaotic state possible.
80
No Ripcord
She’s upped the ante even further than usual here, crafting abrasive, boundary-pushing music with such deft that you won’t understand why you’ll want to keep returning to it, in spite of its despicable design.
80
Resident Advisor
Beyond the abrasiveness of the music, what's most affecting is how Chardiet allows you to experience constant sensory overload as a means of enlightenment.
80
The Line of Best Fit

Devour overall is a punishing, malicious force of a record, one focused entirely on the eradication of any sense of self and musical procedure, with no room for reprieve.

80
Exclaim!
Pharmakon's devouring is whole and ugly, but it carries a rewarding narrative about the importance of suffering — we're eating ourselves alive, but we're also becoming stronger for it, each act of self-cannibalization and each listen to this album more like a single coil in an upward spiral of transcendence than a snake eating its own tail.
79
Pitchfork
With one of her most harrowing and powerful albums to date, Margaret Chardiet zeroes in on the locus where global horrors register on the individual.
70
Tiny Mix Tapes

As a propulsive work, fueled by immediacy and intensity, Devour rejects the attempt to escape the body through the gear-consumed noise fetishist. It’s a reminder of the limits of the body as a site of power, strength lying within the body’s fight against the world that imposes limitations.

MasterCrackfox
82

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

If you've never heard of Pharmakon before, expect something terrifying. Pharmakon makes the abrasive and experimental efforts of others seem like peanuts as Margaret Chardiet shrilly screams over industrial tones and deafening droning. However, her music is also one of message, as each album has perhaps a lost theme that isn't always so on the surface outside of the artwork on the album. This release is about self-consumption, and the human ability to devour ... read more

laz456
30

It's sad that this bands' style is so cool and yet their song writing is so bad. You have a sound which can be used to make a legitimately haunting album and yet it is all ruined with the genuinely awful execution. This album is one of the most tedious listening experiences I've had this year.

dumbmoonlight
10

I really hope the statue head in the cover is made of cake. It looks like it, and it would be less painful to think about. And yeah, y'all have a creepy ass music taste if you're legit saying this is good in any way other than being played in an amusement park's "haunted house".

Thalassophoneus
73

It's interesting, but it doesn't go very far. It is essentially just monotonous industrial instrumentals topped by a woman screaming like my neighbor.

woetoall
78

as três primeira músicas são babado mas o resto é meio scat

holsgr
20

forgettable (★☆☆☆☆)

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Track List

1Homeostasis
4:07
79
2Spit It Out
7:32
80
3Self-Regulating System
6:22
77
4Deprivation
7:52
74
5Pristine Panic / Cheek by Jowl
10:12
78
Total Length: 36 minutes

Year End Lists

#9/Treble
#34/No Ripcord
#77/Noisey
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Added on: July 9, 2019