Abolitionist

I’ve noticed that there aren’t many artists who play so-called RABM that just play purely black metal; most end up mixing a ton of other influences into their music, with the biggest offender usually being crust. Ancst is another one of these politically outspoken leftist bands that refuses to stick to the well-trodden black metal path, instead choosing to incorporate lots of crust and metalcore into their sound (apparently the main guy behind this project has a background in hardcore so I guess it makes sense). This is pretty borderline for black metal with how heavily the crust and -core influences dominate, but I wouldn’t deny that they give this release the angry, frustrated feel that makes it so powerful.

The biggest impression I get from this is just how in-your-face it all is; the songs are all pretty short and to the point, most being 3-4 minutes, and Ancst make sure to make the absolute most of that runtime. Said up-front mood stems from how heavily the songs are dominated by either punchy d-beats or fast blasting, depending on the song, and meaty bass that bellows along in the low end. Most of the riffs, consisting of a mix of metalcore and black metal tremolo, tear along at a frantic, furious pace. Overlaying all this are Tom’s vocals, which consist of a raspy hardcore yell. He bellows about the monotonous and soul-crushing nature of modern, capitalist society, and listening to this there’s no doubt about from where the furious nature of this release comes from.

Occasionally Ancst will try for slightly different moods; the 3 bonus tracks, especially “Call of the Endless Road” and “The Old Darkness”, have more melancholy moments in their runtimes. These songs shift to a more pure black metal template to try to accomplish this, but the loudness of the drum machine and the sameyness of Tom’s yelling end up obstructing attempts at any truly profound mood shifts. It’s possible that the band intended for there to be this undercurrent of frustration in even their sorrowful moments, but to me it ends up not really working out.

In the end, that’s the biggest roadblock to me really enjoying this band: pretty much all their metal songs have the same loud, punchy drumming and bass, the same frantic riffs, and the same mood; I couldn’t chart this band’s progression from Moloch to Abolitionist if my life depended on it. That’s not always a bad thing, especially for a band with as furious of an atmosphere as this one has, but it does make it difficult for me to come back to their work all the time. That said, their stuff does make for great angry listening.