(Industrial Death) The Amenta - N0N - 2008, FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

Take the brutality of death metal, the sick deconstruction of morality prevalent in black metal and throw it into an industrial framework - what you get is The Amenta and their new album nOn is some of the most deliberately raucous, chaotic and corrosive music that I have had the pleasure of enduring. Listening to this band is like putting your head right against the tracks and taking in the racket as a bullet train passes by.
Bile, Skrew, Zyklon and in particular Red Harvest are probably the key influences to The Amenta's sound on nOn; however, the Australians put a lot of effort into one-upping their idols. There are also numerous similarities to the cold, inhuman 'cyber' sound that many modern black metal bands have; however, to me, this is an actual industrial metal record, which is unusual in this day and age. Not that any of these classifications matter much - nOn is a total mindfuck of an album and might be too intense for most, since it rarely lets go, and when it does, it makes a lot of intolerable noise. For example, the listener might really need a breather after the double salvo of predominantly death metal that is the first two actual songs "Junky" and "Vermin", but no. The Amenta instead treat us to a short bit of rhythmic noise, followed be yet more extreme metal. This sort of aural terrorism is the norm here and it is only the presence of some memorable, monumental choruses borrowed from Red Harvest that prevents nOn from being little more than music for masochists. Indeed, the best song here, "Slave", follows this formula to triumphant success.
Whatever style you feel like lumping The Amenta into, it is clear that the aim is basically to go up another notch of extremity. Indeed, if it were up to the guys from The Amenta, I expect the listener would just be thrown onto the tracks in order to experience the approaching bullet train on a personal basis, instead of just hearing it. nOn might not be the most innovative, intelligent or inspired record of 2008, but it sure as hell is one of the most extreme.
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