I just came back from Germany. The terrible grime and grit of their major cities, their loveless artificial nature, the social injustice on stark display, and the unkempt even neglected swathes of real estate nobody cares about had an impact on yours truly. Metropolitan behemoths that were bombed to smithereens many a decade ago and rebuilt in but a few years.
All that sent a message to me, and it wasn’t one of encouragement. It made me angry. A rage that Torsten Hirsch, the mastermind behind Agrypnie,1 seems to share. Because, he’s hailing from exactly one of those slowly decaying areas, one that I used to know well. Not anymore, though.
Unfortunately, the one-pager delivered with erg‘s promo provided the usual commercial tropes about (the greatness of) Agrypnie‘s history and such. Stuff you usually find verbatim on a band’s own website. But nothing in terms of the innards the record is based on. The lyrics speak a different story, though. They starkly tell of the downfall of a world where the populace is destroyed by dystopian events, leaving only the terrible sand in the end on a lonely planet devoid of life.
erg – the ultimate story of Earth’s or mankind’s demise, whichever comes first? Perhaps. But the theme serves as the perfect backdrop for Torsten Hirsch‘s doom-laden, arid style and musical meanderings. For Agrypnie, this is aggression 2.0, something that wasn’t yet quite present before. The record clearly is dominated by Hirsch‘s merciless hardcore-ish wails and desperate screams, seconded by known values such as P.G. of Groza on Blut or – again – Hupocrammos of Dordeduh2 on Sturm, amongst others.
But it is always Flo‘s3 ruthlessly efficient drumming that will beat some sense into you and keep that gaggle of style directions together with an iron fist. Stick-wielding that won’t let you breathe one second between savage blast beats and ever-changing patterns. And while Hirsch and his cronies are lustily barking away, the guitars will pummel you with harsh but still harmonious leads, scratchy yet delicately structured melodies, and meaty riffs to scorch the earth with. All of the above comes with an ebb and flow of atmospherics perfectly embedded in blast beats and brutal tremolos.
And in that vast ocean of abject fury, erg presents a few pretty neat surprises. For instance, Meer ohne Wasser sports some neat little groove at first that made us think about one of the truest masters of Black Metal there is. Sturm, in contrast, goes way beyond the Post Black urges this band professes to follow. This one’s probably the one with most of erg‘s tremolo-laden essence inside.
In the end, Agrypnie used their full firepower to project a nightmarish vision of a world in self-destruct mode that goes way beyond Orwell. And while for the first few tracks the storyline tries to explain things, the second half goes full tilt hellscape. Blood, tears, and destruction on full display and no holds barred.
In other words, erg is as oppressive and dystopian as it is ultimately compelling. And to get there, the band pushed all elements into the mix at once. And that means that the snarled vocals will compete with everything else. That they didn’t lose themselves in a ton of bricks speaks to the craftmanship on full display. Boy, I could mostly and easily discern the bass pretty much at all times. All of the above generates that feeling of being stuck in some sort of chaotic purgatory without any chance to escape. Like some bad dream that you cannot wake up from. And how could you? The world around you is disintegrating, and you’re still part of it.
Still.
Record Rating: 7/10 | Label: AOP Records | Web: Official Band Site
Release Date: 13 September 2024