I had my beady eye on this for a while from the never ending list of digital review requests, wanting to get at it but not having the time. The allure of a biog mentioning Gorgoroth and Skinny Puppy in the same sentence was a compelling one and I really wanted to hear this even if on doing so I disagreed with both these comparisons. Invertia are a duo from New England and apparently this is a follow up from their debut self-titled album of last year. What we get is a potent brew of industrialised black metal in the form of five tracks with each of them getting a follow up remixes courtesy of some pretty big hitters within the scene.
Opener ‘The Sidewinding’ is probably the best of the bunch of the five numbers as it venomously dishes us some scything satanic propaganda straddling industrial and black metal well. The guitar work is full on and goes at a hell for leather pace as the drum machine goes at obliterating speeds over devilish samples and some brief vocal gurgles. It’s strongly reminiscent of Diabolos Rising from almost two decades ago along with the feel of early Aborym and Blacklodge, which is no bad thing at all. I have been playing this one literally to death, Hail Satan! ‘Cross Eyed Christ’ has vocals more pronounced rather than samples and really shows their limitations unfortunately. Guess I have been spoilt listening to the new Mayhem recently but they sound forced and fail to hit the mark. The song itself lacks compared to what came before but still has a meaty definition about it and is an interesting mix stylistically. The rasps are much better on ‘Void Of Community’ and the ice cold grip of the spiralling guitars and militant drumming hit the mark as it pummels and grinds away. It’s a case of some songs really hitting the mark and others not quite being there yet as gurgles irritate on ‘Hourglass Without Sand’ but ‘They’re Everywhere’ runs amok like an out of control machine with venomous raps sounding totally harsh and abrasive.
The remixes are more deconstructions without much of the sound of the original left in them, at times not even the bare bones. This is most notable on ‘The Sidewinding’ as Godflesh, Jesu’ s Justin K Broadrick takes it down an almost ambient route, unfortunately taking the balls out of it in the process. End.User makes their number much more interesting turning ‘Cross Eyed Christ’ into some dark drum and bass, some may hate it for taking it further outside boundaries but anyone open minded should lap this up as I did. Even better are Submerged who take it a step further adding a touch of gabba slam to ‘Hourglass Without Sand’ and really delivering some groovy dub riding d&b too, which is near impossible to sit still to.
So all in all this is as interesting as I anticipated and although not flawless Another Scheme OTW has some really good numbers and mixes on it boding incredibly well for future experimentations.
(7/10 Pete Woods)
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