Bestial Burden

The barely controlled cacophony of Bestial Burden offers a ritual of suffering and catharsis, rendered in raw screams, brutal beats, and ear-grinding industrial noise. Pharmakon (the New York–based artist Margaret Chardiet) uses her own recent near-fatal illness as a departure point to explore the mortality of the flesh in pain-wracked pieces like “Vacuum,” “Body Betrays Itself,” and “Autoimmune.” Especially harrowing is “Primitive Struggle,” a rumbling track punctuated by gasps, coughs, and retching. A nightmarish rendition of Sonny Bono’s “Bang Bang” brings this uncompromising work to a ghoulish yet oddly bracing climax.