Execution Ground

On their only full-length studio album, PainKiller go big. The first disc contains three heavy, atmospheric tracks ranging in length from 14 to 16 minutes; the music nods to the dub-metal of Blind Idiot God. Zorn’s sax sometimes seems to float in on a cloud of effects, and Laswell and Harris have become a rhythm team, rather than momentarily allied individualists. The second disc offers two 20-minute “ambient” remixes, blown-out soundscapes of whooshing rumble, the sax shrieking in the distance like an apex predator stalking a burned-out city.