Review: Atoll Unleash a Glorious Cacophony with Inhuman Implants
Ahh, slam. That simplistic, gore and sex obsessed subset of extreme metal brave enough to say “Y’know what, maybe Lars’s snare tone on St. Anger wasn’t so bad after all.” A lot of it may sounds the same, but I like a good unga-bunga caveman groove as much as the next guy as long as there’s some kind of substance to it. Any burnout can tune low and chug along on the first four or five frets for 30 minutes and call it an EP, but you need that extra little something-something to really make an impact.
Inhuman Implants, the latest full length from Phoenix, Arizona’s Atoll has all of the familiar tropes one would expect from brutal death metal, but they do it with style and genuine, palpable enthusiasm. The massive guitar tone, highly prominent clanking bass, and the variety of vocal styles keep things fresh and interesting from start to finish. Tonally I found it to be very similar to newer era Cryptopsy (self-titled on, not… that one), but structurally it’s slower and less spastic, and with a buffet of slams of course.
To say it’s heavy as fuck would be like saying that water is wet; it pretty much goes without saying. But not only is it heavy, it also has a good awareness of pacing and momentum. The opening track “Autonomic Autosarcophagy” is bombastic and bursting with energy, easily the fastest song on the album, but the following track “Vomit Altar” rapidly downshifts into something like if This Is Exile-era Whitechapel and Pathology had a baby. This pronounced ebb and flow in the tempo stays fairly consistent throughout the album’s runtime, but as it progresses they make it a point to slowly turn up the heat so that even the slower songs continue to pack a punch, especially after the midway point.
For example, “Sexual Aggressor” has a slightly off kilter main riff that makes excellent use of the higher register on the guitar while vocalist Wade Taylor belts out a near-perfect impression of Jordan James from Disentomb’s signature style, and then it ends with a weird but really cool fade-out where all you can hear is the bass and a heavily reverbed snare. Meanwhile, the follow-up track “Missionary Opposition” (lol) is noticeably less experimental, but still has an insanely catchy opening and some very impressive sustained 32nd note double bass. When the final song “Husk” is finished caving the listener’s skull in with almost nonstop double bass and some of the lowest vocals on the entire album, one cannot help but let out a deep exhalation as if a weight had been lifted off of them. Like I said, it’s heavy.
Another thing which stands out on Implants, and in fact is all but impossible to ignore, is how the bass is constantly right in your fucking face. Cameron Broomfield attacks the low end like it owes him money, and although it doesn’t necessarily detract from the guitars, it has been pushed right up to the front of the mix and commands the exact same amount of attention as they do. And best of all, somehow it doesn’t drown out anything else in the process. Props to whoever mixed and mastered this thing, because they truly did manage to make the most out of a sheer wall of sound.
Alternatively, there were a couple of aspects that rubbed me the wrong way as well, most notably the excessive use of Always Sunny and South Park samples on the third track “Gay for God.” I’m not above some good old fashioned tongue-in-cheek juvenile humor, or outright blasphemy for that matter, but I will be that guy and say I think we’re well past putting silly TV and movie clips in metal at this point. Killwhitneydead already beat that dead horse into the ground and out the other side of the planet 20 years ago, and Mortician has songs where the horror movie samples are longer than the actual music, so just… let it go, y’all.
Also, I understand why they included a creepy synth interlude in the middle to signify a ramping up of the pacing, kind of like a bookmark, but I believe that sort of thing only really works during a live show. When I’m just listening to the music, I just wanna listen to the music, period. If the music is well written then it will be engaging enough on its own merit. Maybe it’s just me, but considering how much attention is paid to the momentum on the rest of the album, it just seemed like such a weird decision to intentionally disrupt it.
Thankfully, those couple of details weren’t enough to turn me off too much, just enough to drop it down from, say, a 4.5 rating instead. Overall, Inhuman Implants is an absolute blast, a welcome breath of fresh air in the fun but admittedly oversaturated brutal death metal landscape. It’s always a pleasure when an album with a distinct sense of personality rears its head out of that particular mire of weed, viscera, and dismembered female torsos and reminds us that it’s not all just a bunch of lowbrow palm muted chugging and unintelligible burping.
If you’re in the market for some really heavy shit that’s also smartly written and fun to listen to, Atoll have got you covered.
Atoll’s Inhuman Implants is out today via Unique Leader Records.
