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The Amenta: Occasus

25/09/09 || Khlysty

Where the fuck was everybody, back in 2004? What the fuck was everybody listening to? Why wasn’t “Occasus” THE bestselling metal album of that year? What the fuck happened, everybody gone DEAF or something? I mean, here’s everybody, scratching and grouching about the state of death metal and FUCKING NOBODY talks about The Amenta and their watershed first record (Jesus H. FUCKING Christ, these guys were so fully-formed in vision and sound that it’s fucking scary to even contemplate…). So, here I am to make things clear and to remedy this fucking omission from GD’s Hall of Fame, and if you don’t like, well, tough…

OK, so, back then, these Aussies (now that I think of it, Oz has given us quite a few bands of top-shelf mind-fucking heaviness. What is it, guys? The water? Wallabee burgers?, What?…) came out of the gates, armed to the teeth with a sound that took everything that’s good from death, black, industrial and even noise and combining those elements to create something that exuded power and dripped venomous malevolence over anything and everything in metal. Their sound is hard to categorize, since elements of every one of the above-mentioned genres rares its fugly mug in equal measure during the ten songs that comprise “Occasus”.

So, we have a definite death metal feel, mainly through the growled-but-not-indecipherable vocals and the overall crunchy and meaty guitar sound. Also, we have clear black metal elements (majestic melodies, tremolo-picked guitars, carefully arranged orchestral breaks, a general cold “vibe”), plus industrial elements (the drumming approaches the realms of mechanistic, non-human malevolence and there are quite a few inserts of electronics and noise, tastefully placed throughout the whole of the recording). So, what hybrid do these things make? Industro-blackened death metal, or some such shite? Nah, they just make The Amenta and their signature sound of majestic total annihilation.

I tell you, this shit’s com-fucking-pletely relentless. From the runaway-rabid-dogs attack of opener “Erebus” to the last strains of album closer, “Sangre”, this five-piece goes straight for the jugular, leaving only fragments of breathing space, before again closing in for the kill. The production is top-notch, clear and powerful, but also as raw as it needs to be so as not to suck striking force from the songs. But, you know what? All this is forest-for-the-trees crap. The real issue here is that these guys, while using familiar material as the basis of their sound, they create something new and exciting. Something that defies genre straightjacketing, or fan-mongering and goes way beyond the limits of what “mainstream extreme metal” is supposed to be. “Occasus” is one of these rare records that guarantee unlimited replay potential, if only for the listener to be able, after multiple listens, to discern the disparate elements that combine to create something so gloriously ugly and so incredibly fresh and exciting. Oh, have I also mentioned that “Occasus” is heavy as all-fuck? Now I did, so now you have no excuse…

Information
Released: 2004
Label: Listenable Records
Website: www.theamenta.com
Band
Cessium 137: vocals
Ethion: guitar
Endrin: bass guitar
Chlordane: keyboards
Diazanon: drums

Tracklist
01. Erebus
02. Mictlan
03. Zero
04. Senium
05. Nihil
06. Geilt
07. Sekem
08. Occasus
09. Ennea
10. Sangre

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