Azonic - Beyond The Pale

Azonic Halo (Strata, 1994) was Andy Hawkins' new project after Blind Idiot God, yet another epic excursion at the edge of rock's sonic horizons but this time via four lengthy improvised solos (with help from bassist Gabriel Katz). The ten-minute Beyond the Pale unleashes a tornado of Hendrix-ian feedbacks, violent fits of angst-laden hallucination. The twelve-minute Shore explores the other (contemplative) side of the coin via a droning raga-like distortion, first soaring to the skies and then descending again to Earth. The eleven-minute Headwaters sends waves of metallic dissonance against an oscillating drone. The twelve-minute Raze is the gothic, suspenseful closer, sending alien tremors up cascading walls of white noise that sometimes sound like baroque keyboards played by the fingers of a mad ghost. Few albums in the history of rock music packed and conveys so much emotion with such minimal means.
This transcendent work is the equivalent of Peter Green End of the Game (1969) for the punk and post-industrial generation: the soundtrack of a soul awash in the massive neurosis of his era.

Blind Idiot God, hailing from St Louis (Missouri), were an instrumental power-trio that predated both post-rock and grunge, and that took inspiration from both MC5, Jimi Hendrix, John Coltrane and Glenn Branca.