From Dead Angel:

The latest release from FITH (on the Lithuanian label Autarkeia, limited to 500 copies) is an obsessive exploration of religion as mental illness by way of harsh, grinding power electronics and processed voices. Eleven tracks of hallucinatory sandstorm electroviolence pave the way for a vision of religous mania as its own special form of hell, and while the intensity of attack varies -- from the brooding, near-ambient wind-tunnel drone of tracks like "Written in Her Own Blood Mk. II" and "Fissures in the Lining" to more forbidding exercises in earhurt like "Speaking in Severed Tongues" and the swooping, dive-bombing drones of "Intravenous Incendiary Device" -- the full-on commitment to complete audio dread never does. This is scary-sounding stuff, made even more frightening by the addition of frightening vocal snippets and dense layers of chaotic sound. The cumulative effect is even more forbidding in light of the fact that, unlike many harsh-noise acts, the attack is not constantly full-on; rather, there are long stretches of brooding, dark-ambient noise that occasionally burst into explosions of noise shrapnel and overmodulated grind, creating a paranoid atmosphere in which the listener is constantly waiting for rising jolts of terror that arrive at the most unexpected moments. The result is paranoia incarnate, a bad trip of epic proportions. The disc comes in an elegant three-panel digipak that folds out to reveal some truly disturbing artwork entirely appropriate to the religious theme.

From Heathen Harvest:

Fuck religion. I have no time for that shit in my life. The belief of, and in the worship of, a God or Gods is laughable at best. Anyone who believes in that crap needs their heads examining. If anything can fuck up a weak willed susceptible person its religion. Just look at the nut cases in America and Iraq for proof if you need it. Wars have always been created in the name of religion. Millions have died. Billions more than likely. Many more will surely follow. Holocausts in the name of religion never die out of fashion. They just take on a different name and faith. All in keeping with our self interest motives to wipe each other off the face of the planet. Ever since the first concept of a God was written down or spoken about man has gone out of his way to use religion as a valid reason to kill and conquer. Its Gods will don’t you know. Only whose God is the one true God has never been properly decided. There’s a lot of fuckers out there who have got it totally wrong otherwise. But of course no-one is admitting to that. That would become one less reason or excuse to decimate people if everyone believed in the same God. Even normal, everyday, peace loving people eventually turn to religion. It offers them a hope for the future. A buy out clause in effect. Old people turn to it in their droves because they fear that when they die their useless, utterly forgettable, lives will have all been in vain. Check out all the old crusty cunts going into church on a Sunday morning and see what I mean. Dressed in their fine refinery, like the choice of clothing is that fucking important, they sit on wooden benches singing shit old age songs with a gusto whilst throwing tons of money into the, always, proffered silver plate or wooden box. Imagery is everything. There’s money to be made out of religion and don’t we know it. All this praising this and that all for a happy hereafter where they can sit at the table with God. Repent your sins and the rewards are great. Give all your money to the church and your rewards will be greater still. Or so they think. Pathetic fuckers one and all. But then who am I to knock these people? Everyone is entitled to their believes and I to mine. If they are correct then I’m the one booked onto the expressway to Hell already for writing this opening paragraph. God does not exist. He / she / it never has. Please all go and smell the fucking coffee for once.

How nice to find that the latest release from F/I/T/H is based around
religion. The last time I managed to vent my spleen on the subject was over an atrocious piece of fundamentalist Christian Industrial music, as bad as it sounds, that I got sent into review a long time back for another website. Boy that was fun rattling those cunts cage. So shit was it that I can’t even recall the acts name. A blessing best kept buried. Unlike ‘I/CON’ which should be on the national curriculum of all schools worldwide to stop our next generation falling into the religious mind traps set by the priests, clerics and clergy in general. This latest, and as ever damn essential, piece of music recorded by, your friend and mine, Michael Page has to be heard to be believed. Taking the stand that religion is, in many ways, a festering disease that corrupts and leads to pathological problems the eleven tracks and 45+ minutes of voracious sounds nails religion to the cross marked ‘contemptible liars’. Those of you who don’t believe that religion can adversely effect the mind obviously don’t remember how many cases have come to court where the accused uses the classic ‘God told me to do it’ as a get out clause. Brainwashing. That’s what religion is good at. Manipulation through the Bible, Koran, The Tanakh and, even, the Buddhist Bible…now there was as guy who ate all the pies. By reading into these different tomes of religious guff a meaning to an end can be sought to suits their needs. ‘I/CON’ reflects the destructive power that is inflicted upon an individual all in the name of religion. This being a F/I/T/H release means of course that the path to enlightenment is a torturous affair to reflect the psychological impact that religion can impose upon the mind and will. ‘I/CON’ mixes dark and heavy Industrial and Power electronics music, with fleeting noise elements, to throw the listener into the claustrophobic paranoia and screams of redemption from a corrupted body. At the heart of this ball busting piece of music is the verbal assaults, suitably altered and manipulated, to represent the screams of torment of free thought fighting and rallying against the shit it has been force fed since childhood. As a veritable hurricane of sounds surrounds the ears your gut reacts to the wails and painful vocal delivery and your blood pressure increases in tune to the music as your heart squeezes tightly into a knot. The music is as thick as tar and densely laired giving you this crushing oppressive sense of utter disillusionment and despair. After listening to I/CON you might just think those Norwegian church burning wankers had the right idea after all. Even though they did their acts for a different reason altogether

Having reviewed, and listened, to so many F/I/T/H releases it becomes difficult to mark out which is the best recording Michael has ever produced. Each one represents a different stage in his artistic
development and as such they are all superb in their own right. ‘I/CON’ typifies this. A spellbinding recording that tackles a topical subject in a way that only he can produce. ‘I/CON’ is the anti crusade. A fight against all that is so wrong with religion as a whole. For once this is a crusade worth joining and standing up for. Sign up now whilst you still have the chance. Give me that old time religion. Go fuck yourself.

I/CON is a limited to 500 copies only release. Housed in nicely presented digi-pack the inside cover panels features a rather fetching picture of a nun covered in blood, the old stigmata blues, whilst the central panel includes said bleeding tart surrounded by a halo of thorns. Iconic and ironic all at once. Bad taste has never been so good.