Amenra "Mass I: Prayer I - VI" CD
[Anvil of Fury]
Here's some pretty destructive material from this Belgian group. Expect tons of scathing screams, plodding tempos with a lot of gritty distortion and pounding bass/drums, a little bit of monotone singing, occasional clean passages, etc. At times they'll break off some totally dissonant chords that sound completely insane, and "Alienate" has some typical metalcore runs with pull off riffs and such, while the interesting "Silent Pause" falters with a few tuning problems, but most of the songs are rhythmically focused and dark in attitude. The biggest problem is that the production is really lacking, though. It's not raw in a manner that makes sense or adds to the generally twisted atmosphere of the music, it's raw in a way that comes off as very thin and powerless - something's definitely missing. The rhythm section is fairly dense, but the bass needs to be as oppressive as possible, and the guitar tone needs heaps of work. I'd leave the vocals and drums alone for the most part, but the guitars need way more crunch and density. The distortion is really ineffective and caves in before it has time to build into anything, and that creates big problems when most of the songs are based around slow tempos and sustained chords. Most of the clean passages sound okay, especially the lush notes of "Dimmer". The layout's alright, I like the textures and the uses of handwritten text, but the vibrantly colored little band photos are pixilated and blurry, and some of the other elements are pixilated and rough as well, especially inside the booklet, so it looks a bit sloppy, and I can't tell if it was an intentional decision. No lyrics are included, just brief recording information, so I'm not sure what's going on conceptually. This band could probably be excellent under more suitable conditions. They really need a thick and crisp sound akin to something along the lines of what a band like Isis might use, but probably rawer to go along with their intentionally dirty attack. I feel bad giving this a 5/10, but I can't see myself listening to this again because the sound really does destroy their potential on this EP. (5/10)
Running time - 26:44, Tracks: 6
[Notable tracks: Dimmer, Silent Pause]
Anvil of Fury - anvilofury@hotmail.com

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