Famine, Putrid And Fucking Endless (studio album) by Atvm

From Mercury 06/29/2021 02:21

(Creative, excellently written, recorded and performed Metal album that doesn't seem to feel any particular allegiance to one or 2 sub-genres, but instead is always willing to go off in unexpected and masterful directions. If you like Death Metal and Thrash metal and metal in general, methinks you'll enjoy this beastly Atvm debut.)

Hot damn this album is great! Put simply this is the debut full length LP by English Metal band Atvm (don't ask me how that is pronounced... I'll google later). It's 7 tracks over about 56 minutes. The primary styles the band plays around in is Technical Death Metal and Technical Thrash a good bit as well. But...somehow that seems like a gross oversimplification. What I love best about this album is the feeling of freedom the band seems to have. They don't seem to care to much about staying within certain genre descriptions. There are kind of epic black metal-ish bits, a fair bit of far off-road jazzy explorations, there are Prog Metal switch ups aplenty, and more than that a general willingness to do what feels best for the moment or the songs.

Te musicians are top notch of course, and their talents are put to good use on these compositions. The wanky, complexity-for-complexity's-sake sound that can sometimes dominate technical and progressive forms of metal isn't found here. Not that I can hear. The changes are logical and the songs build oftentimes from a somber austerity to raging DM explosions, and always in elegant ways. It's just a solid Metal album through and through.

Of all the strange phenomena of 2021 for me, the fact that I have so thoroughly fallen for death metal and other forms of extreme metal so hard is perhaps the strangest. This year has been packed with Thrashy, Grindy, Death-y(?) gems that have completely kicked my ass. This debut by Atvm is right there at the very top of the best and most creative and excellent metal I've heard in this year of metal. Highly recommended.