| CD REVIEW Angst Skvadron |
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Band : Angst Skvadron Aouch…this hurts! We found our promo copy of this Norwegian band’s sophomore album to be quite damaged (somehow, it had been crushed on the outside resulting in a breakage of the disc up to the middle of its writeable part, and to me only being able to hear the first four tracks on the album! Actually, the editor-in-chief was gonna dispence with this promo altogether, but I stopped him, convincing of letting me try anyway! So, here I am, to tell you first something about AS’ historical background. ASwas spawned in 2008 as a studio side-project of T.B.[Trondr Bräthen, known from Urgehal(where he’s known as T. Nefas), Beastcraft, In Lingua Mortua, Krypt, Styggdom, Svartekunst, Vulture Lord, Kvist, etc, etc…]. Playing guitar, bass, piano and the demonic/ “alien”/ and male vocals himself, he asked Endzemma and In Lingua Mortua’sL.F.F.(only mentioned with initials) to aid him on drums and quite a variety of additional keyboards, and one O.M.P. (again, only initials mentioned, no earlier band connections indicated) as female singer. T.L.A. added even more female vocals, as R.M. added more guitar, the combo recording the Flukt album for a late June 2008 release on Agonia Records! The project (T.B., R.M., and O.M.P supported by drummer M.K. and bassist H.V.) turned into a real band in Spring 2009, making its live debut on September 8 of the same year…as support to Hail. Info failing from all my usual sources (including the band’s own website which is being built, and their page on MySpace), I’ve no idea what the band’s been up to since, but what I dó know is that T.B., L.F.F., and O.M.P. have put together a new 10 tracks (40:35 duration) for their new album. Expect Avant-Garde Bblack Metal with some twists! The album closing instrumental title track, for instance (I was able to listen to it through myspace.com/angstskvadron) is rather Neo-Classical in nature, doesn’t even have a guitar playing in it! Other songs combine freaky synths with Norse Black Metal, typified by harsh guitars and sharp vocals. From the info that IS available to me, I was able to assertain that the subjects in the lyrics are strongly influenced by psychiatric medicin on the one end (check songs like “Valium Holocaust”, “Posttraumatic Stress Syndrome”, “Rivotril Matja”) and outer space Sci-Fi. The Sci-Fi thing resounds in the music, with the keyboards remeniscent of ‘50s and ‘60s B-movie soundtracks in the genre! Combined with what I found at their MySpace page, I got to listen to 6 of the songs on this album…and I have to say, it made me wanna hear more (so for starters I checked out the posted tracks off the debut album!), made me wish our promo copy hadn’t been broken in the mail…but then again it would most probably have gone to our Black and Death Metal specialist! Personally, I’ve always been into this variant of Black Metal, the Avant-Garde touch adding a Progressive fringe that adds a degree of complexity, the keyboard parts often bringing the freaky-weirdest interludes to alternate the more brutal passages with atmospheric ones, and vice versa! In any case, it shows proof of a musician whom, while keeping one foot in the genre he comes from, reaches out to other boundaries…like as if that should even exist, in music! In sppite of having heard only part of this album, I’m nominating it for my year-lists…and I’m definitely checking to get a copy next time I’m at the record store! Oh darn…almost forgot to mention: vinyl adicts, sit up! A limited edition (only 500 copies made) 10-inch EP titled Valium Holocaust was released through Folter Records on February 6, featuring the track by the same title as well as the Sweet Poisonsongs ”Posttraumatic Stress Syndrome” and “The Eye Among The Stars” in re-mixed versions, plus the previously unreleased “Please Stop”! Additionally, there’s a 7-inch single, titled The Alien(and if that’s the A-side song’s title, it is another “previously unreleased”) on the way!!! 98/100 Tony. |