I'll admit industrial metal isn't typically my thing, but The Amenta are far from a typical industrial metal. If anything, they're a great group to point to when people bring up the limitations of such styles of music. One of the common criticisms of the style is the lack of genuine human emotion that comes out of the precise, dry and choppy industrial-style guitar and drum work, something The Amenta has always been easily able to navigate around because of the attention to detail in the soundscapes that surrounds the peripheral of the music.

Timothy Pope is arguably the most essential contributor to the band's overall vibe, being one of the only two founding members remaining, and having an approach to keyboards that is entirely his own concoction of sampled sounds and effects that he programs to give the most unsettling vibes possible. Fortunately, the keyboards never overtake music to the point where they're the only thing contributing - one thing I've always appreciated about The Amenta is that they don't forget the "death metal" part of "industrial death metal".

The Amenta's atmosphere is calculated, sleek, sophisticated and slightly manic at its edges, which is, interestingly enough, a departure from a lot of the more exaggerated, tongue-in-cheek themes that industrial DM bands such as Strapping Young Lad, Anaal Nathrakh and to a lesser extent The Project Hate MCMXCIX use. Not many bands that go for the "trans-dimensional being attempting to communicate to humans" approach do it with the same sort of deadpan seriousness as this group of strange Aussies. Usually it feels like a caricature, but The Amenta has always felt more...genuine? Realistic? They aren't guessing how an interstellar being would communicate to us and trying to replicate it...they've heard the message that they're trying to send to us, and it turns out aliens have really, really bad intentions for our planet.

Because The Amenta uses such unique building blocks to make up their foundation, they have a near-limitless palate of original ideas to explore, and they take full advantage of this by thoroughly reinventing their sound with each album. Occasus was the overwhelming, riff-saturated introduction to the band, and n0n took the core sound as far as it could go by spending an insane amount of time crafting each song's little intricacies (past interviews indicate that the keyboards took a total of 18 months to record). Flesh Is Heir added more humanistic, emotive elements to the base.

Revelator takes an even bigger step and completely inverts the foundation. The immersive synth textures, and the spacious, wandering compositions are the most immediately noticeable aspects of the record. It's not immediately noticeable, as as opener 'An Epoch Ellipsis' starts out with exactly the suffocating intensity that this group is known for, but even that song shows The Amenta (vocalist Cain Cressall in particular) using a more diverse toolbox and the production allows for some breathing room between the instruments. By the second track, they're already delving into strange, monotonous chants over a rock beat. Revelator dials back a bit of the crushing heaviness of their older work, doing so in order to branch out into eerie, unsettling vibes that creep into your brain with more subtlety.

Longtime fans might be taken aback by the lack of suffocating, pulverising moments, but it's a natural byproduct of the songs extending their range of motion and taking some extremely daring risks - there are moments such as 'Twined Towers' that wouldn't sound out of place on an alt-rock (or dare I say nu-metal) album without the keyboards swirling around, but in the context of manic, rapid-fire deathgrind that surrounds it, it's a perfect, even if a somewhat jarring transition.

This is the kind of ambitious, expect-the-unexpected album that should only be pulled off by musicians that value their vision more than any preconception of genre - and have the chops to pull it off. Dave Haley and Cain Cressall in particular are nothing if not seasoned pros in that regard. Haley holds the album together and keeps up the frenzied energy with his tight speed, while also demonstrating a much wider skill set in restrained, simpler beats than one might expect if you're familiar with some of his other projects such as Psycroptic and Werewolves. Cressall has a vocal performance that has some slightly off-putting and abrasive feelings to it, but slowly you become accustomed to it. Eventually, you'll be taken aback by the widely different range of vocal stylings he attempts, from high shrieking to a throaty, Gojira-esque yell to lower growling to clean singing, with tons of post-production layers smeared overtop at different times to add grit and effects. The power of these two put together make even the most uncomfortable moments on this album intriguing, because they're delivered with precision and zeal.

Long story short - if you described what this album sounded like to me, I probably wouldn't listen to it. The Amenta makes a lot of bold moves: fusing several disparate styles together, no two tracks sound the same, you never know what's coming next, there's tons of off-timed chug grooving and some crooning...and to my surprise, they put together an album that I not only want to listen to, but something that grows on me and reveals new surprises with every subsequent listen.

THE AMENTA is:

Cain Cressall - Vocals
Erik Miehs - Guitars
Timothy Pope - Keyboards, Samples
Dan Quinlan - Bass
David Haley - Drums

MORE INFO AND PRE-ORDERS:

https://www.facebook.com/theamenta
https://theamenta1.bandcamp.com/
https://www.debemur-morti.com/
https://www.facebook.com/debemurmorti
https://theamenta1.bandcamp.com/

Wow, what a great billing with so many premieres on that lovely Saturday evening. First of all I had never been to Resonanzwerk in Oberhausen before and was surprised in a very positive way about the location. It is a very nice hall with a huge stage and cool illumination and a good sound. Apart from this the situation was pretty good and the beverage prices are fine, too. So that was a good start into this heavy metal evening, only the slightly disappointing attendance of 115 people on a Saturday where nothing else metal-related happened left a bitter taste.

Starting with Danish Angstskríg who premiered to play in North Rhine-Westphalia for the first time some technical problems appeared first but their vocalist did the best out of this situation and talked in German a little bit about his German at school and also some jokes. That was pretty entertaining and after a few minutes their show could start. Playing a mixture between old Celtic Frost, Mantar, punk and pretty harsh black metal the masked trio knocked the audience soft for the other three bands that should come later that evening. They had a very well balanced mixture of old songs from their debut "Skyggespil" and their newest self-titled output. The only thing I really missed was their bass player who is, as the band told me, not a person. Well, however, like Samael did it with the drums back in 1996, it also works with the bass. Cool show and a lot of people went over to the merch after their gig.

Setlist: 'Skyggespil' / 'Lad Paladserne Brænde' / 'Midt I En Angstskríg' / 'Lucifer Kalder' / 'Vishedens Ulidelige Lethed' / 'Luk Dine Øjne'

Next were the Finnish melodic black metal guys …And Oceans who really got my attention right from the beginning. I only knew their latest output "As In Gardens So In Tombs" which I really liked when it was released last year but I have to confess that I still haven't investigated the older albums yet. Which I quickly noticed was a big mistake because the melodic stuff they performed that evening was really stunning. It reminded me pretty much of old melodic black metal stuff back from the 90s I liked (like Satyricon and co)and there wasn't a single song I considered as weak. The show the sextet did on stage was full of energy and vocalist Mathias Lillmåns (whom the one or the other might know from bands like Finntroll or Ondfødt) knows how to get the crowd moving. Like Angstskríg they did a nice setlist where they included a lot of old songs, too. If there was a winner that evening, I would say that it would have been …And Oceans.

Setlist: 'The Collector And His Construct' / 'Trollfan' / 'The Dissolution Of Mind And Matter' / 'Cloud Heads' / 'Aquarium Of Children' / 'Within Fire And Crystal' / 'Äcid Sex And Marble Tears' / 'Tears Have No Name' / 'Ambivalent God'

With Attic the only German band this evening entered the stage. But before this the stage had to be decorated with a fence, candle lighters and much more stuff. When vocalist Meister Cagliostro appeared with a huge upside down cross which he placed on the altar the show became pretty impressive. Apart from the quality of the songs also the show, (which had quite a home match this evening because they don't come away too remotely), was amazing and very intense. I guess, I haven't experienced such an intense metal atmosphere for many years with all the lights, theatrical elements and scents like the fog and I guess it was incense. Nevertheless the audience was a little bit more reserved than at …And Oceans and I guess there were less people in the hall to watch them which really was a pity. But okay, the Mercyful Fate-similarities might not be the cup of tea for everyone. I liked the show and was pretty pleased that they did some of my faves like 'A Serpent In The Pulpit' or 'The Headless Horseman' but also presented two new songs from the upcoming album ('Hailstorm And Tempest' and 'Synodus Horrenda').

Setlist: 'Iudicum Dei Intro' / 'Sanctimonious' / 'Satan's Bride' / 'A Serpent In The Pulpit' / 'Hailstorm And Tempest' / 'A Quest For Blood Intro' / 'The Hound Of Heaven' / 'Dark Hosanna' / 'The Invocation' / 'Synodus Horrenda' / 'The Hidden Grave Intro' / 'Funeral In The Woods' / 'The Headless Horseman'

And finally, also coming for their first show ever in North Rhine-Westphalia, French symphonic black metal legends Seth appeared. The stage was again decorated with a lot of stuff like skulls, daggers, a Holy Mary statue, all you need to celebrate a black metal session. Center of the show was vocalist Saint Vincent who wore a robe and was more or less disguised with a scarf around his head. The show was more of a celebration than a black metal concert you might know from bands like Marduk and the audience was very much involved in it because Saint Vincent interacted a lot with the crowd and did his comments in English. Music wise they have released 6 albums. They had a pretty strong album called "La Morsure De Christ" up their sleeve but they didn't really focus on it, they did a lot of songs from their first album "Les Blessures De L'Âme" which I find quite remarkable. Well, however the songs were performed really great and just like Attic did, they created a very dense atmosphere during their show. After about 80 minutes and being 0.10 AM the gig ended (I haven't attended a show for many many years that took so long) with a lot of satisfied fans and I guess I am not the only person who hopes that these bands will come back on stage around here soon again!

Setlist: 'La Morsure Du Christ' / 'Métal Noir' / 'Les Océans Du Vide' / 'La Quintessence Du Mal' / 'Hymne Au Vampire Acte 1' / 'Hymne Au Vampire Acte 2' / 'Hymne Au Vampire Acte 3' / 'Sacrifice De Sang' / 'À La Mémoire De Nos Frères' / 'Le Triomphe De Lucifer'