THE AMENTA, BRINGING INDUSTRIAL BACK ONE VADER SHOW AT A TIME
Australian metal troop The Amenta are currently touring the U.S. with Polish death troop Vader as one of way too many support bands who get abbreviated 20 minute sets on the tour. Thankfully, even with only a 20 minute set, The Amenta made traveling into Manhattan on a Saturday night worth it; their powerful set was equal parts modern death metal and neo-industrial and their stage presence was captivating. Place The Amenta firmly in the “bands to watch” category.
The Amenta’s latest bruiser Non certainly has some electronic elements, but seeing the band live really drove home the point that The Amenta are a modern industrial metal act more than anything else, albeit a really fucking heavy industrial act. Even Senor Suarez, the last person I’d expect to run into at a Vader show, agreed that The Amenta actually utilized keyboard player Timothy Pope to the fullest rather than just relegating him to filling in the cracks like many bands do to their keyboard players. New frontman Cain Cressall was electrifying, striking the right balance between demented frontman and audience cheerleader. I wasn’t ever super-into industrial, but in a scene filled with a million -core bands it was refreshing to see and hear something completely different.
French Canadian tech-death troop Augury, on the other hand — a band I found interesting enough on record to arrive at the show early to see — disappointed. They had two strikes against them from the getgo, playing with a fill-in drummer (The Amenta’s Robin Stone, who’d learned the songs 36 hours prior after Augury’s skinsman suddenly quit) and battling a murky, lifeless sound mix. Beneath it all, there just wasn’t enough variation from song to song to keep my interest; it was all just a giant bowl of noodles.
Having seen Warbringer 16,897 times over the past 2 years and having a birthday party to attend, I jetted from the show after The Amenta’s set but not before witnessing several hundred fans chanting “War-bring-er! War-bring-er!” as the band set up. It seems that Warbringer’s non-stop support touring brigade has finally paid off, as people were genuinely STOKED when the band went on, the audience launching into the fiercest mosh pit of the night the minute the band started playing. For what it’s worth, they sounded damn good for the few minutes I saw them. Perhaps Mr. Suarez would like to tell you how Decrepit Birth and Vader were later on… if not, too bad. It was an Amenta kind of night for me.
-VN
