Germany's Ancst have returned with a new recording which shows the music moving away from the black metal style of earlier releases and going for a mixture of sludge, death metal, grind, hardcore, screamo and crust and this is a review of their 2024 album "Culture Of Brutality" which will b e released in May as a joint effort between Yenohala Tapes and Lifeforce Records.
A very heavy and brutal death metal sound starts off the album while the vocals are mostly aggressive sounding screams. When the music speeds up a great amount of blast b eats and grindcore elements can b e heard along with some of the riffing also adding in a small amount of melody.
The mid tempo sections of the songs also mix influences of hardcore, screamo and crust punk while all of the musical instruments on the recording also have a very powerful sound to them. When tremolo picking is added into the faster riffing they also give the songs more of a black metal touch.
Throughout the recording you can also hear a good mixture of slow, mid paced and fast parts along with the slower sections of the songs also adding in the heaviness of sludge metal. A great portion of the tracks are also very short in length as well as the solos and leads also being done in a very melodic style when they are utilized, spoken word samples and acoustic guitars can also be heard briefly. The production sounds very professional while the lyrics cover gentrification, wage slavery, capitalism, sexism, metal health and the issues of modern western society.
In my opinion this is another great sounding recording from Ancst and while some black metal fans might not like the new direction, I can see this album appealing to fans of crust, grind, hardcore and death metal. RECOMMENDED TRACKS INCLUDE "Armed With Despise" "Damaged Goods" "Teeth into Flesh" and "Gatekeepers From Hell". 8 out of 10.
.jpg)
