Anata
Under a Stone with No Inscription
Wicked World / Earache
These guys have lots of vines with thorns in their logo, and their actual name is pretty difficult to read, so you know there’s some pretty evil inside the package. If that isn’t enough to tip you off, the blood-spattered picture of a misshapen face on the cover should help.
Anata is a super technical grind/death metal outfit that plays really fast, growls menacingly and provides the listener with many catchy melodies. The drums on Under a Stone with No Inscription are so fast that they end up sounding like a toy drum set. The bass drum speediness makes it sound like the taps from the anti-bug device I have plugged into my wall (it actually works, too!). The vocalist is totally awesome. His growl is both sinister and guttural, and he can screech really high. The guitarists (including the bassist) are the true stars of the show. When bands are playing super fast and spastic, it sometimes becomes hard to keep things sensible enough to actually enjoy; not with these guys. They’ve got the thick riffs to please traditional death fans, and their melodious spasms are in weird enough (and spooky enough) keys to please even the palest and most spiked black metal fan. The fact that the drums and bass are so buried will appeal to black metal fans more so than death metal fans.
Simply put, this record is crazy, and it takes a while to get used to. There are lots of time changes, confusing and blazing guitars, spastic vocals, toy set drums and all manner of crazy melodies. It’s hard to get cozy next to this one, but once you take the time, you’ll find that the curiosity of this one is undeniably pleasant and rather exciting!
Earache Records: http://www.earache.com/
