Perpetual Warfare

Constantly evolving and pushing their sounds, AHNA from Vancouver are a band that have been reinventing themselves several times throughout their existence. Over the last few years, their sound has been leaning towards the death metal spectrum, with crust punk undertones seeping their way through the band’s performances. Last year, AHNA released three incredible splits that each proved to be a crushing slab of music. This year, the band returns with a mini-LP that manages to reach sinister sounds beyond the aforementioned splits.

Right away, AHNA declares musical warfare with a nice tremolo Bolt Thrower-esque riff. Much like the sound of bomber jets overhead, it can only imply imminent destruction, and the drums come in like the blast of a bomb. The thrashing pace continues, revealing great riff development therein. The drums have a clear punk foundation to them, and keep a furious momentum to drive the riffs. Following the blitzkrieg speedy riffs, the song breaks down into slow, eerie territory, creating a distinct balance within the song.

These elements are present throughout the mLP, especially the concept of balance. Not only do we get the balance of tempos, but there’s a distinct balance of overall mood. The death metal parts are frantic and pumping with adrenaline. The slow parts are sinister and pulsing. Furthermore, the usage of dual vocals creates another dynamic in AHNA’s music. Both the drummer and guitarist have distinct voices, one being a punkier shout, the other being a morbid death metal roar.

In addition to the unique contrast in vocal styles, AHNA utilizes another stand out technique throughout the album with the usage of lead guitars. In essence, they are often times not really “leads,” but rather a texture that creates an eerie atmosphere that is often unparalleled with bands that play crusty death metal. There are a couple traditional solos here and there, but mostly the lead guitar lets the riffs do the talking.

“Perpetual Warfare” benefits greatly from its on point production. Jesse Gander of RainCity Studios always does a great job with heavy music for bands in Vancouver and beyond, and AHNA’s sound has never been better. The band included a “demo” track from their upcoming full length as a bonus track on the vinyl version of this release, and it really makes it apparent how great the production is on the five tracks from the EP’s recording session.

Death metal fans, especially those who enjoy Autopsy and Bolt Thrower, will get much enjoyment from this release. Fans of Axegrinder, Sacrilege, and other metallic crust will also appreciate what AHNA is doing. Personally, this is my favourite EP from 2015, and I can’t get enough of what this band has been doing the past couple years. If this mLP is any indication, and as evident with the bonus demo track, AHNA’s upcoming LP is going to do some damage. That is, if there’s any survivors left from the onslaught of “Perpetual Warfare.”

Hailing from Canada, Ahna formed in 2008 and started putting out material in the vein of extremely slow doom with heavy crust and black metal influence. After an LP in that style and a string of demos, splits, and EPs, Ahna has moved towards something that I'm infinitely more interested in: a mix of thrash, death metal, and crust. With a mixture of lower pitched growls, higher pitched growls, yelled "clean" vocals that immediately remind one of Sacrilege, and a guitar tone (and a fair amount of riffs) hailing to the same band as well as to early Bolt Thrower, Ahna, on Perpetual Warfare, has created something that is, if not completely unique, incredibly interesting and definitely moving towards a more unique sound, even if it's not quite there. In just over seventeen minutes, they provide a mixture between fast nonstop riffage based around groovy one-string melodies and occasional slower breakdowns that work incredibly well with the music and don't at all detract from the high energy and headbanging groove that Ahna puts out whenever they're not slowing down.

The real standout that I really can't emphasize the quality of enough is how great the little one-string hammered higher threshold riffs are; they hearken back to a couple of songs on Sacrilege's debut from what I can tell, but are used a bit differently and very effectively make this EP stand out massively from its contemporaries in other death/crust groups. The changes in pace and little breaks in between riffs at sections keep the EP interesting (though it'd take a pretty great failure to not manage to keep a seventeen minute EP from getting old), and the breakdowns that do exist, while used more frequently than many bands more rooted in metal would use them, are absolutely perfectly done and not at all distracting. The vocals also provide a momentum-carrying touch; the relatively uncommon mixture of yells and harsh vocals works extremely well here, and each type is just different enough that one could almost believe that Ahna is using three vocalists instead of the two that were
actually involved.

I actually can't think of another band off of the top of my head that uses a mixture of cleaner yelled vocals and harsh ones quite as fluidly as I'm hearing on Perpetual Warfare; normally such a thing is distracting and annoys me, but the songwriting perfectly matches the vocals here and I have no complaints about it. The only particularly uneven thing about this EP is that some of the songs, especially on the second half of it, utilize growls a lot more than the Tam Simpson-esque yelling, and considering how much I absolutely love the Tam type yells, I find that a bit disappointing that the yells are phased out towards the end. However, that really is a petty complaint when stacked against the constant and incredible riffing and the fact that even as the yells stop, the quality continues overall.

In the last few days since I first heard this, I've listened to it about four times a day minimum, and while I doubt that such frequency will last, the love that I've been giving it surely will; for that, I have to thank the wonderful Derek of Begrime Exemious for recommending it.

9/10

Originally written for fetiddead.wordpress.com