The Centre of the Downward Spiral is a haunting and introspective album that establishes Aldred as one the most exciting new talents in experimental music. The atmospheric synthesizers leave you in a trance-like world and you will either love it or hate it owing to its haunting quality. This is excellent art as it most definitely leaves you moved and feeling something. The record guides it’s listeners to the most darkest honest creases of the human psyche.

Red Light Energy from Centre of the Downward Spiral

The eerie opening to Red Light Energy slowly opens the door to a gothic church. This track is the perfect intro number to set the tone for the rest of the album. The song also has a chiming quality to the song that leaves you with a rare experience. He seems to be singing about so much in this song. It’s almost as if he is overwhelmed with the truckload of his own thoughts. Pink Glass is another single in the album that speaks of the delicate interiors of the mind. “Despite my transparency, I needed to break apart in front of my friends. To relinquish the sole ownership of my improvement. Resilience is a dream” How beautifully he speaks of vulnerability. 

End Of Days

The quality of music is so immersive on the album, particularly in End Of Days. Aldred creates a museum for us as listeners. We move past a plethora of emotions put on display in each of the songs. Every Angles creates a sense of foreboding, perfectly compliments the lyrics’ very real (mostly bleak) outlook on life. The slow and steady drums that’s head over the synthesized sounds and his voice has you on alert.

There is a reason why there are so many films out there about Dahmer. It’s a miracle that he got away for as long as he did. The Centre of The Downward spiral would be a brilliant addition to the playlist for Dahmer- Monster: The Jeffery Dahmer Story. What this series did brilliantly and tactically is that they in no way endorsed Dahmer as a character to side with. Ryan Murphy speaks about this as well, they wanted to remain respectful to the victims’ families. The top notch cinematography plus the great production of the album is a complimentary match.

Aldred is a poet with an advantage. He records his thoughts and if it weren’t in song format, people could mistake it for auto ethnographic literature. Some songs feel fragmented but that is the mind as it spirals, sowing together several thoughts from several contexts to give you something fresh to obsess over and fear. Aldred is more than a singer and a songwriter, he is deeply connected with the material he creates. This leaves us feeling oddly seen in his music, it’s almost uncomfortable how real and visceral it feels. I tip my hat to Aldred. He has truly created a style of his own and to think that this is his first album. I am excited to see what he creates next. You should be too.