Martyr Art – FearFaith Machines

Dec8

Self-Dubbed as digital metal, the Martyr Art sound is a voracious mix of varied metal and industrial/electronic textures with more besides from an artist which embraces technology as eagerly as the cauldron of flavours woven into his bold recipe of enterprise. FearFaith Machines is the new and fifth album from the band, a release which for fans and newcomers can only make for one compelling adventure.

Martyr Art is the one man project of Joe Gagliardi III, an Orange County musician whose skills on the guitar are as captivating as the songwriting, vocal prowess, and imagination which equally escape his invention. The band is truly a solo project with Gagliardi playing every instrument before recording, mixing and mastering every second of adventure making up FearFaith Machines. Since emerging in 2004, Martyr Art has shared stages with the likes of Corey Glover, Doyle, KMFDM, Drowning Pool, Saul Williams, Full Devil Jacket, Brick By Brick, Dead Empires, and Moon Tooth whilst releasing a host of well-received singles and EPs as well as those previous four full-lengths. Up to this point Martyr Art had evaded our radar but FearFaith Machines has corrected that and will for a whole new tide of fans such its striking offerings.

The album starts with Motion, metallic electronic pulses and temptations luring ears before raw steely smog brings a rousing scourge of groove and alternative metal awash with industrial espionage. Quickly Gagliardi shows his vocal diversity as throat scarred and clean tones intermingle with the former heading the virulent contagion. Equally his craft on the guitar further ignites the tempest, shredding and picking multi-cultural sonic temptations.

The following cyclone of The Pleasure of Pain is just as invasively magnetic, its industrial inclinations steering the listener towards the waiting metal bred uproar. The cycle repeats with even greater heat and intensity, vocals again a great blend of attack and enterprise matching the adventurous emprise of sound. Like a maelstrom of Rabbit Junk, Squidhead, and Cynical Existence, the track is a captivating fury more than matched by next up Who Are You. The third song scowls as it plunders the senses, raging with punk dissonance as again a web of styles and flavours unite with voracity and imagination on the way to forging another major highlight within the release.

Across the sinister almost psychotic Just and the superb Constrict, the album simply expands its landscape of sound and captivation, the second of the two almost primal in its breath yet precise in its layers of boldly varied texture and spicing while their successor, Thundering, is a dark seduction with hues of bands like Type O Negative and Sisters Of Mercy to its irresistible gothic rock/post punk serenade.

Final track is Binary Slavery, a carnivorous slice of industrial metal gnawing at the senses yet soothing the wounds with melodic caresses though they too come with an edge of trespass to their infectious exploits. It is a rousing end to the album highlighting the craft, imagination, and bold fusions making up the heart of FearFaith Machines.

Gagliardi creates something that is nothing less than unique from the familiar styles and sounds he weaves with, indisputable evidence coming with one of the most fascinatingly individual and simply enjoyable encounters this year.

FearFaith Machines is out now; available @ https://martyrart.bandcamp.com/album/fearfaith-machines

http://martyrart.com/ https://www.facebook.com/martyrartofficial

Pete RingMaster 01/12/2018

UnHuman Insurrection – Equilibrium

Nov16

Hailing from Monselice in Italy, UnHuman Insurrection is a band we suggest you will be hearing a great deal more of and increasing praise for as their debut album reaches an increasing number of ears. Equilibrium offers up eights slabs of metal as broad in their flavouring as they are in their enterprise; a collection of songs which quite simply demand attention.

Rising from the ashes of Burn of Black, UnHuman Insurrection emerged in 2016, initially just going under the name UnHuman. Since their first steps on the Italian metal scene, the band has earned potent support and plaudits and gone on to share stages with the likes of Sabaton, Lacuna Coil, and Arch Enemy. Their sound is a tapestry of industrial, thrash, and melodic metal but has plenty more in its arsenal of enterprise to entice with; a mix well covered by inspirations to the band which include artists such as Testament, Fear Factory, Exodus, Lamb of God, Killswitch Engage, and Machine Head. As Equilibrium reveals, it is a blend which at times has familiarity to it and in other moments an individuality which can only flourish ahead.

The album’s title is a perfect echo to the band’s sound, a fusion of raw and imposing trespasses balanced with a melodic radiance and enterprise; that predation and seduction uniting and in full roar within opener, Primal Instinct. A sonic mist descends initially, its industrial chill quipped with an electronic pulse. Within this breath guitars connect their wires eventually coming to a head and charging through ears with a thrash driven eruption. The potent clean tones of vocalist Giacomo Cordioli rise within the midst of the growing web of temptation, his calm but tenacious presence courted by the aggressive swings of drummer Alberto Lemoni and the throaty dark growl of bass. Guitarists Matteo Theo Milani and Marco Markwild Piva wrap it all in a web of enterprise, melodic and aggression driven metal escaping their craft and imagination in a track which just captivates from start to finish.

The great start continues through Chasing Hope, it instantly grabbing ears with force and adventure as melodic tendrils vine the song’s immediate trespass upon the senses. Again Cordioli’s vocals come with a harmonic croon as powerful as it is radiant against the heavier darker climate of sound. Milani’s classic metal nurtured vines spring across the track’s growing adventure, the song epitomising that mix of the recognisable and inescapably fresh within its compelling grooving and tenacious adventure.

As strong and rousing as the first pair are, they are eclipsed by the album’s best track, Lobotomized. Straight away the song grips attention and appetite with its sonic nagging, teasing grooves which eventually turn primal as guitars and rhythms stalk the senses alongside increasingly rousing vocals. It is a galvanic edge which escalates in the track’s anthemic chorus; an essence giving an already imaginative encounter greater insistency and captivation as does the subsequent spirals of guitar, every twist and turn escalating the track’s magnificence.

Through the industrial climate of Shreds of Identities, another major highlight of the album atmospherically chilling and barbarously predatory, and the almost demonic realm of The Edge Of Nothing, the album went from strength to strength. The second of the two is an intriguing offering, a track which overall did not quite spark the same greed as its two predecessors yet every moment with it brought fresh imagination amidst unpredictable trespasses to enthral and increasingly impress.

The following Parasite instantly lived up to its title, the song leeching on the senses and imagination with its feral tides of death metal lined riffs and melodic breezes. Another song nagging submission to its lures whilst invading with technical and malevolent enterprise, it quickly declares its presence as another memorable pinnacle of the release, intimation matched by Buried Alive and its electro hued but equally carnivorous exploits. As all tracks though, its body is a lattice of flavours, textures, and contrasts which had us thoroughly gripped and pleasured.

Ashes And Dust brings the album to a close, it another which maybe did not quite excite as those around such their strengths, but left release and ears in an even stronger union. There are only reasons to recommend about Equilibrium and plenty of them, seemingly more and more emerging by the listen. UnHuman Insurrection maybe pretty much unknown beyond their homeland but most likely not for too much longer if their debut full-length is the sign of things to come.

http://www.unhumanband.com/ https://www.facebook.com/unhumaninsurrection/ https://twitter.com/unhumanband

Pete RingMaster 14/11/2018

Spookshow Inc. – Visions Of The Blinded World pt I & II

Nov3

Four years after Part I unleashed its “furiously agitated entrapment of industrial, metal, and electro rock”, a rousing accompaniment to an impending apocalypse, Part II of Visions Of The Blinded World is here to not only continue the arcane adventure but take it into a whole new level of dark deeds and senses trespassing contagion. The project is from Norwegian trio Spookshow Inc., a band which has been curiously ignored by bigger attention so far, a blind eye which if continuing after the full release of Visions Of The Blinded World will be criminal.

The beginning of Spookshow Inc. goes all the way back to 2003 when Lucky Spook (guitar, programming, songwriting, producer) and Soltex (vocals) came together and began creating and nurturing their individual fusion of industrial and heavy metal with electro rock. As proven by the 2014 released Visions Of The Blinded World pt I, there are plenty of other rich flavours to the band’s asylum of sound, Middle Eastern hues alone an inescapably alluring ingredient. With the band’s line-up completed by bassist/keyboardist Sharaz who featured on the final few songs recorded for its predecessor, the second part of Visions Of The Blinded World is an even richer affair of sound and styles, a bolder adventure in an already eager collusion of essences sure to appeal to any appetites for the likes of Pink Floyd, Prodigy, Rob Zombie, KMFDM, NIN, and Pitchshifter.

Visions Of The Blinded World pt I & II has been released as a complete package and should be listened as one to grasp its full dark majesty though each part firmly captivates alone too. It makes for a journey which leaves ears, body and imagination as aroused as they are disturbed, as inspired and animated as they are haunted. As we have covered part I previously, which you can read here, we will explore the second part of the creative emprise, a canter through the haunting shadows and ravenous dissonance of a dystopian landscape lost in extinction luring bedlam. Note though that the first ‘side’ of the album contains two brand new tracks in the shapes of the Seven Trumpets, a track sparked by the biblical legend of the same name but an echo of a split personality, and the horror movie like Lizard Eyes.

Pt II opens up with Virtual Insanity, electronic sparkling the gateway to an infernal surge of electro rock predation as ravenously hungry as it is virulently catchy. Even so, its instinctive urgency has an underlying premeditation of devious intent, melodies and calmer but darker twists adding to the track’s inescapable invasion. Something akin to Rabbit Junk meets Fear Factory, the track instantly has the project’s second part off to a flyer but also connects seamlessly to the nature and presence of the first part of Visions Of The Blinded World.

Already breathless from the superb thickly rousing start, the band show no mercy as Devil’s Triangle surges in with similarly uproarious energy and intent, Spook’s guitar gnawing away at ears as beats swipe at the senses, Soltex’s vocals in turn matching their boisterous appetites with eagerness and attitude. Again momentary detours bring darker trespass rather than a chance to take a breath, it all adding up to another galvanic assault.

Next up Mindgame does bring calm, its melodic caresses courted by demonic tones of voice and intimation, a sonic Garden of Eden oasis in some ways. Featuring XRC, the track smoulders with toxic beauty; those Eastern hues enticing with siren-esque seduction as darkness await new arrivals. Enthralling and haunting in its distraction, the song slips away for the advancing savage addiction and voracious heavy swing of Little Pill. Eating away at thoughts and senses from its initial original cinematic drama to its esurient stalking, evil soaking every note and castigating syllable, the track with Subliminal Mentality guesting equally got under the skin and nagged away thereon in.

Blackbird From Karachi with D.Tschirner involved is a deceptive creature; evolving from its initial serenade into another predatory confrontation courting chaos and corrosion with almost pernicious incitement, every moment unpredictable and disturbing before the outstanding Prison Planet casts its specific trap. A galactic tango which had the body bouncing and imagination conjuring as intrigue and espionage fuel every contagious touch, it in turn departs to encourage the emotionally harmful but physically infectious dance of Falling Down Pt. I. All three tracks simply hit the spot, repetition occurring across the whole of the album as proven yet again by the dark carnival of Cold Frantic Boy, this another track mixing flirtation and catchy harassment with cinematic intimation as cold vocals bring their own toxic fascination pretty meaning submission to its dark glamour was inevitable.

Across the likes of Match Of The Century / A. Crowley Vs. A. Einstein with its increasingly volatile and ominous disquiet around a hypothetical chess game between the two protagonists and Kissing In Graveyards featuring Underworld, another slice of aural insidiousness, the album continued taking ears and pleasure into new dark corners, the release magnetically broadening its maze of sound and creative villainy before stretching it again with the glorious Midnight Tango, a mesmeric psych surf piece with a caress of The Doors and Calling All Astronauts to its dark rock ‘n’ roll.

The final pair of Follow Me, a carnal trespass of pestilence-laden temptation, and Battle For Babylon with R. Carey (an English- New Zealand based artist better known as Fiery Jack (The Teapot Goblins)) a guest in its stark yet rousing smouldering epilogue, provide a compelling conclusion to the relentlessly enthralling release. In some ways they lack the rousing bait of their predecessors but in just as many are cast in mutually potent lures of dark emotive suggestion.

As suggested the biggest rewards come from listening to Visions Of The Blinded World pt I & II as one but certainly not essential as proven by the individual galvanic prowess of each track. Spookshow Inc. has created a landscape bred in the world’s turbulence and destruction; Part I made us want to know more, the stunning Part II sparked the desire to be lost in its impeding tempest with the band’s sounds for company.

Visions Of The Blinded World pt I & II is available now @ https://spookshowinc.bandcamp.com/album/spookshow-inc-visions-of-the-blinded-world-pt-i-ii

https://www.spookshowinc.com/ https://www.facebook.com/spookshowinc/

Pete RingMaster 02/11/2018

Project Silence – Infinity

Oct8

It has not proved too hard for us at The RR to be hooked on the creative animus of Finnish industrialists Project Silence these past years ever since the release of their debut album 424 in 2012. Even as their electro-metal based sound has evolved and embraced a host of extreme and raw metal textures across subsequent encounters, each encounter has accentuated our fascination come addiction with their music. It is fair to say that the blackened death hued adventure of the band’s last album, Slave To The Machine, did not quite hit the personal spot but still had more than a few moments of irresistible and striking adventure. Now two years on, the Kuopio quintet has returned with a seven track scourge in the shape of Infinity; a release which quite simply is their finest moment.

Infinity sees the Kuopio hailing quintet of Delacroix (vocals, programming, keyboards), S (guitar), J (guitar), Silve R (drums), and Sturmpanzerjäger (bass) in many ways returning to the industrial breeding of their roots whilst still exploring the variation of flavours involved in the creative weave of its predecessor. From its first breath there is a sense of fresh maturity and boldness to the sound, the initial trespass of opener We Will Rise a contagion loaded tide of muscular riffs. It is a fierce yet infectious nagging with a touch of Fear Factory to it which ebbs and flows as the guttural growl of Delacroix entices. As heavy as it is portentously dark, an insurgent sound tempered by the melodic tease of keys, the sonic incitement just stirred ears and imagination; a result only escalated across its successors.

The equally outstanding From Beyond follows, its initial lure new wave-esque amidst swift gothic hued intimation before its black hearted dance emerges. Even then it is a prowling venture of threat and magnetic suggestion; technical death metal dexterity merging with industrial rapacity to increasingly fascinate as its electro instincts escape sonic darklands before the tantalising drama and ungodly seduction of No More envelops and devours the senses. Soaked in malevolence, the track subsequently swings from its sinful crawl into a just as nefarious canter, Crowley-esque hues lining the increasingly transfixing and ravenous encounter.

Forgotten shares its own diabolical instincts and adventure next, its gait and character as volatile as it is sonically and melodically imaginative; again a weave of flavours mingled and worked with compelling enterprise while Pulse swings and stomps straight after with tenacious endeavour and a mercurial breath seeming not sure whether it wants to dance with or ravish its victim; for the main simultaneously doing both.

The final pair of Anthropophagite and Day Of Reckoning brings Infinity to a mighty close; the first is just superb as it feasts on the flesh and senses of the listener whilst nagging increasing attention and lust with its repetitious riffs and grooves. As keys spread their melodic toxins and vocals their taunting malevolence, the track simply escalates its lures before leaving its successor to infest body and spirit with its Rammstein spiced death soaked craft and immorality. As all tracks, it offers an invasive but captivating web of styles and flavours within its industrial metal nurtured adventure leaving the listener bouncing in deed and thought.

In many ways Project Silence has taken the strongest and most adventurous ingredients from their previous releases to breed the rousing exploits of Infinity but there are just as plenty fresh and new elements which keep the band as one of the most exciting proposals within industrial and indeed extreme metal.

Infinity is out now via Sliptrick Records across most stores and available @ https://projectsilence.bandcamp.com/album/infinity

http://www.projectsilence.info/ https://www.facebook.com/projectsilenceband/ https://sliptrickrecords.com/project-silence/

Pete RingMaster 06/10/2018

Squidhead – Cult[ist]

Apr26

“There are horrors beyond life’s edge that we do not suspect, and once in a while man’s evil prying calls them just within our range.” [H.P. Lovecraft, The Thing on the Doorstep]

It is more than curiosity which fuels the imagination and predacious captivation of the debut album from Squidhead. Inspired by the darkest depths of the nightmare universe of HP Lovecraft, Cult[ist] lures and exposes the listener to unmentionable and unforgettable horrors across eight slices of modern death metal though that is a tag which just does not do it justice. Technically compelling with an array of flavours spun from an additional fusion of industrial and electronic metal, the album is an invasive often venomous encounter but one just imposingly seductive.

With its seeds sown in 2009, Squidhead started in Belgian as the instrumental solo project of The Painter, better known back then as Pierre Minet. The project was officially unveiled at the end of 2013 with the Prohibition EP released a few months later to potent acclaim. It was a stirring adventure for ears and the imagination, Minet’s craft and enterprise striking across its five tracks inspiring thoughts to conjure their own dark tales. As the band ventured upon the live scene, Squidhead has subsequently evolved in personnel and in turn sound. The result of three years creativity, Cult[ist] is an infernal treat of a proposition around the ever magnetic prowess of The Painter. Alongside him The Crawler unleashes tenebrific intimation through his bass and The Orator unveils nightmare realms and imagery with visceral vocal trespasses; each a source of dark tempting more than complementing the eight stringed conjuring of The Painter.

The storm courted opening to the album coaxes ears into the waiting clutches of Abyssal Worshippers, keys hinting as they lay a sinister lure into the waiting web of intrigue and opacity. Swiftly The Painter immerses ears and thoughts with technical adventure, his strings flaming with suggestion and craft but equally as potent settling into the almost carnivorous trap laid by the feral jaws of the bass and The Orator’s throat scarred vocal painting. Having run with the imagination on Squidhead’s previous offering, it was a surprise and initially wrong-footing to have some of the visual interpretation done for us but quickly the band showed there was plenty of room to create one’s own nightmares too.

The great start is immediately built upon by Mantra Of Insanity, the initial spiral of guitar drawing the fierce punches of drums and the gnarly breath of the bass before Orator spills the song’s animus of intent. Even in its rampant state, the track feels like it is stalking the senses, preying on their fears and nightmares whilst teasing with melodic tendrils carrying their own line in devious relish. The bass sadly loses some of its irritability as the song evolves and becomes an incantation like proposal yet it all works perfectly before Awakening stretches it’s carnal and in time more elegant if still rabid appetite led by the ever magnetic endeavour of The Painter. As with all tracks, every listen brings new twists and shadows to explore and similarly each delves into their pits sees the songs blossoming to greater heights.

Through the invasive dynamics and technical claws of the excellent Lucid Nightmares and the murky palette of the equally riveting Mad Painter, band and album entwine the senses in a tapestry of creative cunning and manipulation. Both tracks just enslaved attention and an already greedy appetite for the release while Whispers Of The Deep prowls and summons thoughts with intimidation and atmospheric beauty to match its predecessor’s captivation.

Similarly Torn Skies ignited the psyche and passion with its bordering on barbarous stomp, its rock ‘n’ roll virulent and voracious with spinning webs of guitar accentuating its creative alchemy. Leaving the senses breathless and imagination ablaze, the track is another major rival for best moment within Cult[ist] though the choice does twist and turn among this last quartet of tracks much as they themselves within their seriously tempting bodies.

Verbis Diablo brings the album to a richly alluring close, its more mercurial gait and air posing challenges, perils, and temptations to greedily devour. It is a fine end to an album we hoped big things of due to Prohibition but has revealed a band and sound which has evolved to be a far richer and darker experience, much as the worlds it finds its inspirations in.

Cult[ist] is out now @ https://thesquidhead.bandcamp.com/

http://www.squidhead.be/ https://www.facebook.com/squidheadproject

Pete RingMaster 26/04/2018

Der Prosector – Egregious EP

Oct25

Examining every inch of the senses and psyche as it throws you round the dance-floor is the Egregious EP, the debut release from UK/US industrial cyberpunks Der Prosector. Unleashed through UK indie label Armalyte Industries, the infestation of sound and emotional irritation is a ravenous often rabid tempest of industrial punk sure to instil a real hunger for more in a great many.

Almondbury hailing Der Prosector consists of Ged Denton (Cyber-tec Project), Digby Denton (Frogs of War), Jules Seifert (The Sepia), and Neil Hester (Downcast, The Sepia). Together the quartet dive head first into the tempestuous explorations of themes such as “sex and death, ever eroding freedoms, wilful mind control and the continued brutalization of the innocent” within Egregious, conjuring sounds and sonic trespasses to match the intensity of word and emotion. It pulls no punches from its first breath, each track an abrasing and bracing confrontation withering the senses as it incites feet and body to rampage.

The EP starts up with Sun Dogs, its initial atmospheric coaxing already fraught with threat and intrigue which only escalates as the track rises up with infection fuelled lures and flirtatious rhythms. As the vocals of Ged Denton spring their attitude lined invitation, synths and guitar weave an invasively catchy web as beats thump with matching contagion. At times like a raw fusion of Prong and Rabbit Junk, the song continues to impose and incite as it devours body and spirit.

Strangled brings a new visceral air and tone next up, its prowling beats and stalking sonic probing an interrogation with its own compelling contagion. Second by second, its touch and breath intensifies, its irritancy breeding greater enmity yet it never lessens its infectious persuasion on hips and spirit. There is a touch of Pitchshifter to its punk causticity which is even more pronounced within the following virus of The Instrument though it is fair to say that the song and its companions are all firmly stamped Der Prosector. The third track stomps around with exasperation; vex soaking every note and syllable as its industrial punk exploits brews a maelstrom of creative enmity before the inescapably addictive Subject 7 imposes its specific contagion with punk bred, industrial brewed enterprise and threat.

The rapacious energy and unbridled catchiness of MotherHack, a track which bubbles with lava-esque determination, brings things to a mighty conclusion though the digital release of Egregious comes with the treat of three remixes of Sun Dogs; each of the 2Bit Heroes edit, DigitalMetal mix, and Sere Remix revealing distinctly individual alter egos of the song to complete the pleasure and fascination nurtured by the EP.

Though each of its members has experienced acclaim and success with their previous projects, Der Prosector is a whole new ball game which the Egregious EP suggests has the potential to out do anything before.

The Egregious EP is out now through Armalyte Industries and available @ https://armalyte.bandcamp.com/album/der-prosector-egregious-ep digitally and on Ltd Ed blood splattered vinyl.

https://www.derprosector.com/ https://www.facebook.com/derprosector

Pete RingMaster 24/10/2017

Chasing Sanity – Anathema

Jul26

Chasing Sanity is the new solo project from Erik Martin, formerly of Erik Dismembered and one half of Skin Drone; a new creative adventure born from the ashes of the first of those two when Martin decided to “start over and rebrand” himself and his music having felt “uninspired to write anything under the Erik D moniker”. In many ways, Chasing Sanity is closer in style to his work with Otto Kinzel as Skin Drone but as swiftly revealed within debut album Anathema, creating its own unique and fascinating world of imagination and sound.

Though you might primarily tag Anathema as Avant Industrial Metal, it is equally a kaleidoscope of atmospheric and cinematic textures drawn from the darkest corners and depths of the imagination. Every track is a challenge and canvas for the imagination to conjure upon and a place where intimate horrors collude with broader nightmares. Themed by “anxious depression and anger” bred in Martin’s own experienced emotional turmoil, the album opens with You Fiend. Primarily an instrumental release, the first track features the vocal prowess of Nate Exx Gradowski from Isolated Antagonist, AutomatoN, and Quo. Straight away the raw snarl of guitar stalks the senses, inserting their toxic magnetism as Gradowski adds his multi-textured presence within a similarly diverse lure of synths. Every second of the song leads to a fresh turn and unpredictable twist, Gradowski’s switches between harsh and clean vocals matched very second of the way by invasive yet captivating sound.

In many ways, the opener is a straight forward proposal to embrace compared to its successors where the imagination is as active as ears. Cursed is next up, gliding in on the infectious throb of bass as an increasing web of sound and noise insert their suggestive glimpses into the track’s brewing landscape. Drama fuels every second, metal nurtured riffs and trespasses gripping bait but persistently interrupted by haunting atmospherics and sombre shadows to catch ears and thoughts off guard time and time again. As with all pieces, interpretation will be unique to the individual but unavoidable as the track provokes and inspires before Depths Of Euphoria immerses ears in its own disarming quiet suggestiveness. Even more cinematic than its predecessor, the song is like a flight through night clad scenery with sinister shadows and dark traps waiting to spring.

The industrial intimidation of Haunted Walls quickly has thoughts and emotions involved next; danger and innocence entangling within its guitar veined gothic body. It is a dark place though with the invasive intent of a Hostel found cell, every step within its fascination wrought with tension and ill-intent before Dismembered Thoughts brings some light to the release with its infectious waltz. Yet it too is a tenebrous dance with treachery and menacing asides, keeping ears and thoughts again wary and busy throughout its passage through to the steely net of sonic intimation cast by Orange Bottle. A blend of textures and styles unite for its metal nurtured shuffle, the track prowling the senses as it commandingly ignites physical and mental involvement.

Pills, Pain And An Autopsy creates its own travelogue through the dark tunnels and layers of psyche and suggestion where caliginous beauty and thought infesting angst breed their own unique connection. The track continues to grow and blossom, never escaping its haunting shadows but nurturing a myriad of melodic hues and evocative textures within its atmospheric immersion.

The final pair of tracks upon the EP sees Martin linking up with firstly Rockwater Pictures for Red Death and its percussive and inhuman infestation of the psyche and lastly with Chris Bollinger of Kill Point Protocol and Varicella in Salem, 1666. The final track only needs Vincent Price’s distinctive growl to be the complete cinematic nightmare, one offering extreme and industrial metal surges seemingly glimpsed through a damaged canvas slashed by the claws of the horned one. As the album, it needs numerous plays to settle on a final interpretation, if you ever can, with thick enjoyment flowing through every attempt.

There is no doubt that Anathema is a challenge, one only venturing within its dark realms will reveal whether you will embrace or flee from it, but as is the theme with Erik Martin’s work, it is a testing which leaves you mentally and physically alive and indeed welcomingly exhausted. Chasing Sanity pretty much sums up the sound and experience of Anathema, something we all do in varying ways through life.

Anathema is out now across most stores and @ https://chasingsanity.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/chasingsanityband

Pete RingMaster 26/07/2017