I just recently received this release from Cullen Gallagher (a transplant from Maine to Brooklyn, New York) who operates under the name of Modern Silent Cinema. MSC's releases go all the way back to 2004 with a varied approach to left field music, ranging from oddball soundtracks to primitive lo-fo avant garde piano and weird indie guitar/electronics albums. 'Flesh Mother' was originally recorded back in 2009 but now comes to light in commercial formats, remixed with a bonus track and remastered by Caleb Mulkerin (of Big Blood). The release date is scheduled for December 29, 2025, and this is one of the few times I've actually gotten a review finished before the release date. 'Flesh Mother (Redux)' is primarily a noise/black metal album with lots of distorted guitar grind and electronic grief. The opening track, "Velvet-Clawed Misfortune Approaches" begins with a wall of loud, heavy distortion with a vague notion of chord/note change. This lasts incessantly up to 3/4 of the way through the nearly 4 minute piece, the last quarter being a wind-down of sorts. Only true noisophiles may be brave enough to continue. The title track is next, a good deal more nuanced in its approach to noise with its distorted sonics and metallic rumblings as a strange rhythm emerges from the shadows. It sounds like what I would imagine to be a dreaming but restless malevolent dragon. "Twisted Passion (Made Her a Mistress of Sin)" has a vaguely shoegaze quality about it with some melodic concession but still primarily noise. "Acrohypothermy" fires guitar through all distortion pedals at once with some sort of swirling echo just to keep things moving. It's a phantasmagoria of noise indulgence until the end. Cullen break out the piano for '"Whittington's Wishes" as psychotic and distorted notes careen in a surreal echo chamber. Back to more heavy guitar-created noise on "Emlorin" but this time there is a melody woven into it like a demonic fanfare. More guitar harshness is the mainstay of "What You Have Left" that I'm sure is ear-splitting and teeth-jarring at a loud volume. "Assuage" takes a sustained, overdriven guitar note into a buzzy, seemingly endless drone with overtones that lasts for 6:25. (Talk about endurance tests...whew!) Finally we get the last track, "Fires That Destroy" which is unlike anything else on the album. Here you actually hear Cullen play his guitar without the heavy distortion (but still with some effects) in something that might resemble a song, or at least the makings of one. It is an odd chord progression with a fair amount of improvisation that might have been the result of on-the-spot creation. For me, what makes Modern Silent Cinema interesting is Cullen's output beyond this album. 'Flesh Mother's' appeal will largely be limited to black metal noise enthusiasts but those interested in a wider variety of avant garde sounds should check out MSC's other releases, and there are quite a few of them. You can purchase the CD of this album from MSC's Bandcamp site, but you'll have to go to the Bad Channel Records label site for the vinyl. By the way, that's the image of Polish silent film femme fatale Pola Negri on the cover.