On looking at the grainy green inlay, with its a messy stack of TV monitors background to the Australian metal five-piece clad in balaclavas and military garb, listeners may piece together that this latest album won't be an easy ride for the senses. NoN is in fact a bold exercise in darkness and intensity, and a record not to be taken lightly.
Amenta's Niche in Industrial Music
Taking valuable lessons from the Fear Factory and Biomechanical school of industrial metal, The Amenta are a band intent on holding back none of their menace, and their second album pulls out all the stops as far as their respective weapons of destruction are concerned.
Drums pound forth in controlled rapid grooves, guitars pulsate with high end power strums and neck breaking palm mutes, and keyboards complement the whole process with an exhilarating array of synths, sirens and noises, discordant and rhythmical, all present with the sole intention of putting listeners in a cold and scary place. With the end result overlaid with a freshly acquired vocal talent that growls, chants and wails, often in obscured muffled oration, it's easy to get swiftly lost in this monstrously engrossing piece of work.
The Conceptual Nature of NoN
The tracks, each one titled with blunt single words that will issue wary listeners further warning to approach with discretion, seem to merge seamlessly and are often segmented with short bewildering interludes that meander between dark electronic ambience and ear pounding drum and bass.
This is most definitely something of a concept album, displaying heaviness and eeriness in equal measures, and failing to relent until the last devastating track. With production values immaculate and well mapped, it will take a while to fully absorb everything happening on this album, and future replays may warrant an increased liking to its layered and ear pounding arsenal of sound.
Overall
Particularly in this record, The Amenta are the sum of their parts, each musical tool a mere piece to the overall industrial rhythmical beast that this relatively new band have so masterfully engineered. Listeners may read this as the soundtrack to a technological nightmare, something worthy of the scariest film, or the creepiest video game imaginable.
Whatever people might think, there is no doubting the talent and prowess this band have demonstrated in only their second album. If future releases are to reflect the quality and intensity of NoN, bands of the genre would be well advised to take heed, and to make way for the new rightful heirs of exemplary industrial metal.
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