★★★★
It’s been a fabulous year for progressive death metal, with magnificent releases from Fallujah, Black Crown Initiate and now Aussies (and adopted Canadians) The Schoenberg Automaton.
Initial impressions are that of an absolutely brutal, visceral experience. The music relentlessly bludgeons the listener around the head with its intensity and the vocals howl like a thousand demons on satanic steroids. However, delve a little deeper and some nuance starts to make itself clear, hiding in plain sight among the blast. The dynamics, although subtle, become apparent. The Schoenberg Automaton know how to take their foot off the accelerator and add sweet moments of something resembling melody or ambience, albeit fleetingly, and the arrangements are cohesively chaotic.
This is definitely a progressive metal album, not just a mind-numbing barrage of brutality. To play music of this type, the musicians need to be ultra-precise, powerful masters of their craft, and the instrumentalists in this band have honed themselves to elite levels of development.
The best bands in heavy music are those that can be blisteringly brutal but do so in an interesting and imaginative manner, and The Schoenberg Automaton definitely achieve that. Apus is enormous.
The Schoenberg Automaton’sApusis available now on Rocket.
