Merzbow is Masami Akita, a noise sculptor from Japan who creates impossibly shrill, formless masses of sound using metals, voices, radio static and lots and lots of machines. It's extreme to say the least, and it's hard to tell which is more headache-inducing: the sounds of scraping metal and dense electronic pulsations, or the album's hypno-reflective, unscannable packaging. Either way, Merzbow succeeds in producing genuinely extreme, downright torturous sounds that are strangely compelling in their shredding intensity; you can feel them in your spine and your fillings. And unlike the members of the Boredoms, who make cacophony-seekers sift through tangents and interludes, Merzbow just pummels you with sheets of black (and white) noise for 73 minutes. Enjoy!