Cover albums are not only a good way for a band to express their interests but also can allow them the freedom of expression. I’m stating the obvious here but it all stems down to the choices the band make and what they do with the originals. Thinking outside the box is always a bonus. So here we have Australian industrial tech, death metal crew The Amenta doing just this with a so called EP of ten tracks allowing them to push their creative hive mind to new territories.
After an atmospheric intro of their own they pick one of the most blasphemous songs ever created, namely Diamanda Galas’ ‘Sono l’Antichristo’. Of course nobody on the planet is ever going to be able to match her vocal range but Cain Cressall keeps things suitably nasty over a seething blackened tumult of anti-clerical disgust, taking it to new extremes. Now, I have heard many a Killing Joke cover including ones of the song in question, ‘Asteroid’ Here The Amenta play it relatively straight but knock it out the park with the juggernauting velocity honed to perfection. I even had to do a double take and look to see if Jaz Coleman had done a guest-spot here. The tribal thump and bombast will knock you right off your feet and have you hollering along; perfection! At the other end of the spectrum Stone Temple Pilots ‘Angry Chair’ starts with ambient drift before moving into an energetic rock out with grunge sensibilities, which had me down a time tunnel and nodding along happily in recognition. The title track is another original construct and takes a sledgehammer to a melon approach with raw vocal growls and bruising battery. One for the fans to look forward to the next album.
Over on the flip side Wolf Eyes ‘A Million Eyes’ is a slithering morass of instrumental electronic terror. A real horror soundtrack full of tension in the vein of artists such as Lustmord. Downright creepy this is guaranteed to get your flesh crawling. It seems only right that attention is turned to the group’s own heartland and they pick three Australian bands next, Lord Kaos, Halo and Nazxul. Personally I only knew the latter but enjoyed all. Lord Kaos are known for having Astennu ex Dimmu Borgir and Covenant in their ranks and get the symphonic pitch-black approach on ‘Crystal Lakes’ with seething salvos of blasting and vocals hollered to the rooftops. It will be interesting to see how Dimmu Borgir’s forthcoming cover album compares to this. Halo were apparently an industrial sludge / doom band once signed to Relapse. ‘Rise’ provides a chaotic laden first impression of the band as it heaves and quakes away but doesn’t exactly endear me to explore the original band further. Nazxul’s Totem is the first cut from the band’s debut album of that title from 1995. It’s a multi-layered excess of grim and abrasive blackness which again does the original proud. Finishing off it’s the turn of Halifax England’s doomiest sons of misery. ‘Black God’ by My Dying Bride is perhaps not the best choice as it’s a far from dynamic song in the first place. It does however retain the drab moroseness of the original and serves as a suitable closing piece after the manic intensity of the rest of the album here.
(8/10 Pete Woods)
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