When a new review arrives in my inbox, I often listen to the music first before reading any release info from the band. I like to let the music do the talking before I check out any info from the PR agent. It wasn’t until I read the release info did I come to notice that The Amentia’s latest release Plague of Locus (Debemur Morti) contains a bunch of cover songs. Clearly, The Amentia were able to take a few tracks from bands that inspired them and to transform them into songs of their own.

The release starts off with an eerie instrumental before going into “Sono L Anticristo”. This track has plenty to enjoy with synths, buzzsaw guitars, blasting drums and sonic drums. The track is all just complete chaos. Which makes the next track choices all that more bizarre. I can’t say I’m familiar with the tracks covered. Alice in Chains and Killing Joke are an entirely different spectrum to what I’m accustomed to listening to. Their cover of “Asteroid,” is an absolute banger stuffed and filled with punk fueled piss and anger. 

“Angry Chair,” comes off dark as fuck with an added viciousness to The Amenta’s version. Gotta love the deep murky groves here. The clean vocals may be an unusual choice for, but they have no problem pulling them off. 

“Plague of Locus” is the only original track that The Amenta gives us and it is a track which carries a lot of weight and hits in all of the right places. The riffs squeal and pummel. Their synths are haunting and eerie and the vocals are sick. The track just keeps getting heavy as the song chugs on. 

Plague of Locus has some many varying styles across the recording, from the blistering title track to the somber closer, “Totem.” Each track is a different and often strange journey in the world of heavy music to bridge the gap until they unleash more original music.

Buy the album here:

https://theamenta1.bandcamp.com/album/plague-of-locus

7 / 10

ANDREW RISCH