CD Reviews
Amnistia - Black Halo | Review
Amnistia - Black Halo
9XO Media
May 2019
Amnistia returns with "Black Halo"
Amnistia is an electro - industrial duo from Germany. Focused on the darker side of electronics and industrial beats Stefan Schœtz [Arrangements, Sound, Lyrics] and Tino Claus [Vocals, Lyrics, Arrangements] released their sixth full-length album, "Black Halo".
Returning to their root sound, hard dark indutrial beats, Amnistia gives us an album including a collection of new songs with melodies, that darkens the atmosphere and distorted vocals, bound to those synths, bass and drumbeats.
The journey in "Black Halo" starts with "Ini7", an instrumental intro. An intro to a smokey industrial room, where darkness is about to fall. "Package of Regrets" follows and a strong bassline leads us to some old-school style ebm beats, while a melodic chorus brings a mood full of regrets. "The Itch" and "Through the Night" continues the strong beat with a filthy addition in the drum machine with some synths in the back taking the listener to the light and back again, into darkness. Deep distorted vocals within these songs.
"Black Halo", the same titled song , starts quite more melodic with some voice samples, while the rhythm is a little bit more pop here. "The Haunted" brings back the darkness and the strong beats. Haunting vocals, deeper in the chorus, adds a feeling of fear. "Crowds Cheer Verdict" is a lower tempo song, there is a lot of aggression coming out, though!
"Last Words Purify" and "Misery" remains in the same lines of the album, with the first in the harder side and the second in the melodic one, with an emotional chorus. "Suffer" and "In Between" looks more experimental, but with the synths in "In Between" being in front of the drums in a more dark melodic approach. "We Do Not Disturb Our Dead" is the closing track. It is a haunting outro with some alterations in the rhythm but still keeping all the dark mystic atmosphere of the album.
"Black Halo" is an industrial album, containing elements from some great old school industrial bands of the 80's and 90's. Listen carefully and you will find some known lines from bands like Front Line Assembly, Skinny Puppy or even Ministry, in Amnistia's sound. Along with the strong beats and deep vocals with distortion, we can hear to some guitar riffs in songs like "The Itch" or "Suffer". Vocal samples are used in a number of songs while lyrics seems to be inspired and focus on social-political factors.
Old-school industrial and EBM fans and lovers will definitely like this album, since it brings all that good elements of the dark electro as we knew it back in the 90's. Influences that have been captured in a beautiful way, in order to fit in modern dark electro requirements.
"Black Halo" release date is May 29th and it will be out from 9XO Media, the band's own company.
Info:
https://www.facebook.com/AMN.official/
