Indian’s From All Purity is painful to listen to. Screaming from the bottom of some deep, dark hole, it’s been left there to die alone. Beating its dirty fists until bloody against a cage where it’s been locked up for years, this beast is malnourished and horribly abused by its captors. Only the most hardened extreme metal enthusiasts could sit through such a punishing trial of anguish and despair, this tortured, noisy specimen of doom metal blackened to let in absolutely no light.

And yet, there’s something about the godforsaken From All Purity that makes it difficult – but not exactly impossible – to turn away. Droning and almost hypnotic, with massive, charred downstrokes that fall like atomic bombs from a burning sky, From All Purity is inhospitable terrain, and yet this primal scream from the deepest depths of human depravity could also be considered cathartic. Still, the crashing eight-minute opener “Rape” is a terrifying sonic ordeal, what with its electronic screeds, feral screams and ponderous, exploding riffage that creates a mammoth wall of hostile sound.

Then, all turns to sludge, as Indian pummels the life out of “Impetus Bleeds” and “Directional,” wrapping wreaths of barbed-wire distortion around gargantuan riffs that tirelessly pound away at a lifeless body. This is Indian’s preposterously heavy formula, the problem being that it’s makes each track almost indistinguishable from the next, although “Clarity,” an arty dumping ground of screeching noise that makes Lou Reed’s Metal Machine Music seem like a delightful romp through the park, is an island unto itself.

One of the most powerful and all-consuming sonic statements of recent years, the 40 minutes of hell that is From All Purity is also mind numbing and repetitive. Escape while you still can.

Label: Relapse