Augmented
Atrocity – Anomaly – Aussaat – CD – Aussaat28 – 2023
https://augmentedatrocity.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Aussaatundernte/
E-Mail: ernten@aol.com
1.
Circling
Around Sin.
2.
Monkey.
3.
The
Army of Copycats.
4.
I
Won.
5.
Control
& Dominance.
6.
Body
Is an Object.
7.
Straight
Line.
8.
Progression
Upon Progression.
9.
Bareback
Purist.
10. Anal Anomaly.
Anomaly:
an odd, peculiar, or strange condition, situation, quality, etc. an incongruity
or inconsistency.
Anomaly
is the third album by Finland based act Augmented Atrocity, the cd comes in a bloody
red 6 panel digipack.
From
the last, most recent album I became very familiar with Augmented Atrocity’s
use of big synthesiser sounds, when they use drones, they truly know how to do
it well - Circling Around Sin revels in massive drones. There is a
strong use of bleak, ambient atmospherics that the sound can slowly move around
in. The drones seem to become a singular tonal frequency that hums as the vocal
shout comes in, a buzzier synth drone then takes its place, the distortion to
this emphasises a nastiness to the sound that remains when the vocal comes
back. A small amount of wobble comes into the electronics to highlight the aggression’s
effect.
A
fractured electronic comes in for Monkey, this is fractured through a
subtle raise in distortion. The vocal is tweaked via adjusting the speed and
tone, so it sounds mutant. A crunching beat comes in as the backing sounds
indicate a riot and chaos – an impressive rise in impact to the track. A
forceful vocal replaces the mutant voice and kicks things off at the end. Big
drones and crackling form a crunchy rhythm, the vocal goes off on a rant,
things are emphasised through subtle rises in backing drone, it demonstrates a
clever use of tension. The title ‘The Army of Copycats’ is repeated over
sample.
I
Won shows a good fall
into Death Industrial through a dominant synth pattern over a wall of distortion.
The electronics are allowed to play out for a long period of time until the
vocal arrives to hammer the point into the listener. Excellent use of Synth
pattern shown here. The screech that kicks into the sound after the vocal ends,
is the perfect cut off to I Won. Control & Dominance does as the
title said by stepping up the vastness of the synthesisers and allowing the
sound to throb. Vocals are limited to
samples in the background, a gritty distortion begins to overlay the drones and
a bigger wall like blast thickens this suddenly, the lack of vocal allows the
noise to do the work and build a picture, the samples are buried just enough to
allow the noise to be so effective. Low-level electronics and rumbling intertwine
with each other on Body Is An Object. A rhythm comes in, the electronics
weave in and out of this rapidly.
A
similar, but slightly stripped-down use of electronics allows space in the
sound for the vocal to return on Straight Line. This allows ambient
textures to slowly grow in the track and lead towards its end. A thicker wall
of distortion with shouting forms Progression Upon Progression. The
distortion falters, so it is less solid and becomes an irregular rhythm for the
shout to kick off with. Bareback Purist is literally a bareback use of
distortion and screeching, it isn’t smooth; this serves as the perfect backing
for the shouting. The backing drone that arrives is excellent, providing a
platform for things to break down and remerge upon throughout the track.
The
finale is Anal Anomaly, this allows a total fracturing of the track, everything
is cut into so it becomes a continual morse code overlay of the stops and
starts of different noises. Only the vocal noises are untampered and roar
weakly over the noise. I don’t mean weakly as in bad, but the forceful shout
isn’t there, it indicates a tiredness, an exhaustion, an end. The choppy
distortion gains prominence, becoming forceful as report samples play. This is
a textured, cut-up end to the album.
I
truly rate this project, Anomaly is a strong album, like their latest album, it
just might be excellent. Available from all good distros or directly from
Aussaat.
Nothing
and Nobody – 2024.