THE AMENTA: V01D

Produced by The Amenta
Released: March 2011

“Empty”, “Null”, “Nihil”, “Nil”, “None”, “V01D”. It’s easy to see the recurring theme that runs throughout this latest recording by Australia’s premier extreme noise technicians. The ambient bleeps, electronic beats, metallic scraping sounds and haunting soundscapes that sprawl across this album engender a harrowing, oppressive atmosphere of emptiness and cold sterility. Woven amongst them are the harsh, crushing and dense industrial death metal tracks with which The Amenta has set new standards for extreme metal in this country.


Essentially, "V01D" is a reimagining of several tracks collected from the past two albums, completely re-recorded with their latest line-up that now includes Australia’s most overlooked death metal vocalist, Cain Cressal. The general direction remains similar to the course they plotted with n0n, with the most significant differences in the delivery of the vocals and the enhanced clarity in the production, with some further enhancement of the atmospheric aspects. There’s also a nod to their influences with a cover of Armored Angel’s “Enigmatize” that is more or less faithful but with a modern polish and further experimentation with another four remixes that call to mind the work of Skinny Puppy and Front Line Assembly.

The second part of the package is video footage of one of the band’s live performances, captured in Sydney, and an awesomely gruesome Aphex Twin-style clip for “Vermin”.

It would have been easy for The Amenta to do something half-arsed when they’re giving it away free as a download, but with "V01D" they instead continue to uphold their reputation as one of the best Australian underground acts in circulation. And it costs you nothing, so seek it out.


1. Empty
2. V01D
3. Erebus
4. Ache
5. Junky
6. Spine
7. Null
8. Vermin
9. Nihil
10. Nil
11. Enigmatize
12. None
13. Junky (remix)
14. Nihil (remix)
15. Vermin (remix)
16. Erebus (remix)

DVD component:
1. Junky
2. Vermin
3. Mictlan
4. Erebus
5. Vermin (clip)

Rating: 91%

THE AMENTA: N0N

Produced by The Amenta

Released: October 20, 2008

The Amenta's second album is perhaps best summed up by their own press: "N0N is the fusion of white noise, shards of dissonant guitars and dense layers of radio chatter." That is indeed a pretty apt description of what is essentially a very discordant and confronting release. Imagine if Devin Townsend turned evil and kidnapped Ogre from Skinny Puppy and Justin Broadrick from Godflesh and made them work on his diabolical scheme to destroy music. N0N sounds something like that.

Stylistically aligned to the likes of Akercocke, Axis of Perdition, Zyklon and soon-to-be-touring-buddies The Berzerker, The Amenta mixes extreme metal elements like grinding, repetitive guitars and unhallowed vocal shrieks with ambience, white noise and industrial sounds to create something that, while not being quite as original as it's made out to be (see Godflesh and Skinny Puppy references above) is nevertheless far different from virtually everything masquerading as "extreme metal" at present.

N0N is a challenging listen, and I dare anyone to grasp it all the first time they hear it. It isn't catchy, except in rare moments like "Dirt" where an odd dub-style melody line appears. It's coarse and abrasive, with noise and chattering mercilessly overdubbed and multi-tracked as if the guitar parts were being recorded live at a busy railway station. The riffs are slab-like and repetitive, grinding and in some places almost a drone, a lot of the time virtually secondary to the beats and effects. There is a bunch of guests on here, including Alex Pope from Ruins and Jason Medonca from Akercocke, along with a total of two drummers (although with Dave Haley as one of them, one wonders why two would be necessary), two bassists -- neither of whom are particularly prominent -- and apparently six vocalists but in this deliberately faceless band no contribution is distinguishable from any other. It's only because The Amenta is at pains to point out that so many people worked on this that you even know this.

This is an almost impenetrably extreme volume of experimental noise meshed with metal that certainly won't appeal to everyone but those looking to explore the fringes of listenable art will find this truly compelling stuff.

1. On
2. Junky
3. Vermin
4. Entropy
5. Slave
6. Whore
7. Spine
8. Skin
9. Dirt
10. Atrophy
11. Cancer
12. Rape

Rating: 86%