(written by Islander)
Angest is a new name within the freezing and fiery realms of black metal, but its multi-national lineup quickly attracts attention. It includes two members of Détresse, two members of Humanitas Error Est, and the drummer for Cult of Erinyes and LVTHN.
At one time three of them performed with Lebenssucht, and their resumes also include former or current membership (including live stage sessions) in such bands as Enthroned, Dawohl, Einst, Goat Torment, Gevurah, Sabathan, Thanargonauts, and Towering.
The fact that their debut album Perpetual Anguish will be released by Vendetta Records (on June 26th) is a further signifier of quality. The name of the album is also a signifier, a sign of the night-dark nature of the music and the terrible emotions that fueled it.
Vendetta describes it as “a record shaped by fear in its most suffocating and paralyzing forms” — “the fear of uncertainty, the overwhelming weight of daily existence, the sensation of drowning beneath one’s own thoughts, and the gradual loss of voice and identity until only a pale, speechless figure remains.”
The titles of the album’s five songs (totaling 41 minutes of music) reinforce the pitch-black nature of the album’s themes, which explore “the slow erosion of the self, the inability to move forward, to speak, to participate in everyday life, while being consumed from within by anxiety, uncertainty, and emotional collapse”:
It Crumbles, It Falls
Thick, Black Tar
No More
The Walls Collide
Your Sight Is Blinded
At least for this writer, the album’s themes triggered a memory of the famous litany from Dune — that fear is the mind-killer, the little-death that brings total obliteration. But while the Bene Gesserit litany provided a method of facing and overcoming fear, it’s far less clear that teaching a way forward is part of Angest’s musical mission.
The Angest song we’re now premiering, “Thick, Black Tar“, certainly doesn’t sound like a life-line being thrown to a drowning person. As its name implies, it instead seems to capture the debilitating torment of trying to move through a life that’s choked with anxiety and despair.
In the opening moments the lead guitar miserably screams against a backdrop of groaning chords, all of the notes coated in uncomfortably abrading distortion. Punchy beats kick in, along with throat-tearing howls and wrenching screams, and tremolo’d riffing causes the music to dismally boil.
The shrill lead guitar frantically flickers and the riffing caustically sizzles; the drums alternately hurtle and hammer; the bass powerfully throbs; a tormented voice cries out and echoes; the music suffuses the listener’s senses, not tarry in sound by still making easy breaths very hard to come by.
As the fretwork-frenzies of the guitars rise and fall, the music creates experiences of fear and confusion, fury and desperation, and as the riffs cycle over and over again they dig ever-deeper into a listener’s mind and mood, to the point that the music begins to become a ruinous spell, one that yields no hope but isn’t easily forgotten.
ANGEST Line-Up:
Guitars & Lead Vocals: S.P. (Détresse, Einst, ex-Lebenssucht)
Guitars: B.F. (Dawohl, Humanitas Error Est, ex-Lebenssucht, Towering)
Bass: C.S. (Détresse, Gevurah (Live))
Drums: A.V. (Cult of Erinyes, ex-Enthroned, Goat Torment (Live), Humanitas Error Est, ex-Lebenssucht, LVTHN, Sabathan, Thanargonauts)
Perpetual Anguish was mixed by Patrick Stoiber, mastered by Christian Höll, and features cover art by Belial Necro Arts and a logo by Noircevr. Pre-orders will be available via the links below.
Vendetta recommends the album for fans of: Zhrine, Regarde Les Hommes Tomber, Misþyrming, and Lebenssucht.
PRE-ORDER:
https://vendetta-records.com/
https://vendetta-records.bandcamp.com/
ANGEST:
https://www.facebook.com/angest.void
https://www.instagram.com/angest.band