All the Dead Melt Down as Rain by Uboa

What if I told you that the pandemic never actually ended? You probably think you know where I’m going with this, but I’m not talking about the continued spread of COVID, though that’s certainly a real issue. I’m describing the pandemic we find on All the Dead Melt Down as Rain by Uboa, a horrifyingly lonely and uncomfortably ordinary affair conveyed through intense industrial noise. Vocals range from creepy, textural whispers to unmitigated screams, matching an instrumental landscape dense with disturbing samples, sawtooth synths, and percussive explosions. Through this violent desperation we hear the underrepresented voice of someone living with a painful, debilitating chronic disease, the sort of untreatable, incurable, invisible ailment that an increasing number of people find themselves forced to live with. The “end of the pandemic” didn’t trigger a meaningful turnaround in declining public health; instead, we shifted attention away from a worsening crisis, one which picks people apart through its infinite singular manifestations. Either way, we get the same result, empty streets as people cluster by a dying flame indoors, praying for something, anything, to change.