Augmented Atrocity - Anomaly

 

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.