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Amebix, Sonic Mass: And Ever May You Be

Posted in Reviews on January 9th, 2012 by JJ Koczan

When Amebix vocalist/bassist Rob “The Baron” Miller dropped a line and requested a review of the band’s first album in more than 20 years, my response was simple: I’m not qualified. In saying so, I was sincere. I was never cool enough to be the crust punk anarcho kid. I never had the backpatch, the “No Gods, No Masters” tattoo, the smell. Amebix’s two legendary and massively influential LPs, Arise! (1985) and Monolith (1987), have gone unexplored on my part for years, so when Sonic Mass (released by the band in cooperation with Easy Action Records) came along, I felt I had no basis to appreciate it and that I wouldn’t be able to judge it with the proper context – I’d be out of my league, in other words. Miller, probably well thinking I was a total ass, sent the album anyway. It was released in Sept. 2011, and I slept on the download as I do a lot of downloads, the added element of intimidation not helping the cause, until I finally saw the album on Nathan Carson of Witch Mountain’s year-end list on The Bone Reader (credit where it’s due), which was endorsement enough for me to at last give Sonic Mass the listen it deserves. I relate this story mostly to explain what took so long on the review and to cover my ass in case I get some contextual element horribly wrong or come off ignorant of Amebix’s legacy (which, again, I am), but also to give some background on the effect Sonic Mass had on me as a listener.

A lot of albums, it being months after the release, I’d probably just let go, but Sonic Mass hits with an air of profundity suited to the decades since Amebix’s last studio full-length. Working within and outside the genre the band helped create, it is timeless, and so I feel less constrained by time in talking about it. Or maybe that’s just my way of justifying having slept on a cool record. In any case, Amebix’s third album doesn’t arrive completely without warning. The trio of Rob, brother/guitarist Stig C. (Chris) Miller and drummer Roy Mayorga (ex-Nausea/Soulfly/Stone Sour) came together for shows in 2009 and in 2010 released the Redux EP reworking three classic Amebix tracks – “Arise!,” “Winter” and “Chain Reaction.” It was a move justified by a change in methodology and sound and a firm way of noting that 21st Century Amebix is not the same band it once was or just an act trying to recapture the rawness of their early work. Instead, the material on Sonic Mass is imbued with a sense of drama more befitting a modern interpretation of the early-‘90s heyday of Peaceville-style gothic doom than sleeping-on-your-floor punk, though strains of industrial intensity remain consistent, however more cleanly they might be presented here. Structured for vinyl, Sonic Mass works in two sides, but the 10 songs make linear sense as well; a flow mirrored within the tracks coming to a final apex on pre-album single “Knights of the Black Sun” that satisfies a tension built over the course of the preceding 43 minutes. Still, there’s a grandiosity to Sonic Mass immediately on opener “Days” that flies in the face of crust’s keep-it-simple ethos, at least partially.

I say “partially” because on Sonic Mass, no matter how indulgent Amebix get, they only once lose sight of structure, and when they do it, it’s on purpose. Accordingly, “Days” is more circumstance than pomp, beginning with The Baron’s bass and a semi-spoken delivery of the appropriate opening lines, “We came out of the night/Bloodied yet unbowed/From days we always will remember.” Mayorga and Stig soon join in with a military march worthy of some of Primordial’s constant battle with post-conflict regret, Mayorga enhancing the grandeur with synth strings and choirs soon swallowed by a mounting wall of guitar. The ensuing final minute is given to the repetition of “These days will never come again,” and heavier setup for “Shield Wall,” which is precisely what it sounds like: A protective battlement. Flowing directly from “Days,” Mayorga counts in and Stig soon unleashes a grinding churn that wouldn’t be out of place on Monolith were it not topped with layers of noise and wailing highs. They don’t keep the battle theme, though, and instead moving into more spiritual ground with “The Messenger” and “God of the Grain,” which mark the point at which the crux of Sonic Mass really gets under way. The atmosphere is set and Amebix have already established that the palette has widened and they’re able to move in a varied ambience and still evoke a feeling of consistency – not something one might expect a band who hasn’t put out new material in 20-plus years to do – but if Sonic Mass proves anything, it proves there’s power in defying expectation.

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