This nu-apocalyptic metal crew has, as they put it, come a long way since the Axe and Cleaver in Boston, Lincolnshire over 10 years ago. Doing time in pubs and clubs is character-building and helps to develop all bands, so credit to them for that. In the intervening period they’ve put themselves about on tours and at festivals, and have released an EP and an album prior to a gap in activity and now “Human”, their latest EP.
Starting with the title song, Anti-Clone fill the air with a menacing robotic air. This is aided by dark electro, a hypnotic beat and a cleverly invasive sound quality. It’s a pumping good song and rises to a dark hardcore-style chorus. I must confess I was expecting Anti-Clone to fly out of the blocks but instead they choose to fill our heads with a dark, throbbing number. “Punish Me” is more what I had expected. Full of energy and aggression, it’s a mish-mash of dark electro, hardcore and a contrasting clean chorus. It’s as if Rammstein, Killswitch and Drip Fed Empire all met up in the same place. The mix of styles and especially that chorus style was at first confronting, I found, but I concluded that it’s inventive and it works. “At the End of the World” has a similar effect. The core style is a kind of groove metal with a post rock punch, laced again by a child-like chorus at one point. One thing that’s always very noticeable is the tightness of the musicianship. Anti-Clone’s songs take a clear path, to them at least, and it’s up to us to find out. It’s not a difficult or unpleasant task. I’d felt a bit of punk-hardcore mixed with cyber metal about this, and the driving force and guitar work of “Spiteful” reinforced this view. Again, it has the cleanest of emo-style clean choruses mixed in with the growly guitar tones. It’s not an obvious mix but it’s all glued together nicely and the result is a fun, hard song. That covers it, so it’s not a long work at about 14 minutes but for some there is a bonus song, Bjork cover “Army of Me”. Pounding drums mix with an electro buzz and a sinister cyberbeing on vocals. Menace combines with aggression. Drums hammer. The bass growls. Malevolence and anger fill the air. It’s controlled violence. A wall is being broken down. It’s powerful.
I hadn’t realised that nu metal was still a thing. On the strength of this EP, Anti-Clone have moved well beyond the original definition, whatever that was, and have injected different and differing elements into their songs. They themselves stress that their music has a modern technical twist, and has a melodic side, and I go along with that. “Human” is a short collection of strong and vibrant songs. It’s fresh, and it tells me that Anti-Clone put on a great live show. There’s plenty of energy, plenty of menace, and plenty of power here. I enjoyed it.
(8.5/10 Andrew Doherty)
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