EP REVIEW: An Audience Of Mannequins – Voices

Formed by members of the British extreme metal institution AKERCOCKE in 2011, VOICES have kept things dark ever since. Over three studio albums, they’ve offered up plenty of searing progressive black metal, whilst also increasingly mining more gothic and gloomy territories. 2018’s Frightened marked their most ambitious effort thus far – an expansive, varied record that was arguably also their most accessible. With a fourth full-length expected soon, An Audience Of Mannequins is here to tie us over in the meantime. Releasing via Church Road Records, with all profits going to Dementia UK, this three-track EP shouldn’t be seen as just a stop-gap. It’s a short but quality record, rich in both scope and execution.

The band go straight for the jugular with the EP’s vicious opening title track. It definitely sits on the more savage end of the VOICES sonic spectrum, with crushing riffs, double kicks and blast beats galore. The band’s vocalist Peter Benjamin is quick to shine in particular. At first, he opts for fierce and brutal gutturals that match the music well. Later, as the track progresses, he introduces grand and powerful cleans which add a real epic feel to proceedings. These also hammer home the song’s themes of derealisation and depersonalisation, with a sung hook of “I know that you don’t exist” left to reverberate around listeners’ heads for days.

It’s been clear for a while now that VOICES are capable of far more than just extreme metal. That’s definitely the case on this EP too. In fact, the title track is the only song of the three that fits the ‘extreme’ tag at all. That isn’t to say the rest of the record loses its darkness though. Second track Hostile Confrontations is a mournful and melancholy piece built on swirling organs and subtle textures. Benjamin shines again here, this time channelling his inner Nick Cave with a glum, theatrical performance. Those comparisons don’t stop there either, with the track managing to find a beauty amid the grim and gloom as Cave often does.

EP closer A Comfortable Distance is arguably the strongest song on the record. It’s also the shortest, telling a simple story of a painful goodbye. The music conveys this perfectly, with delicate pianos, swelling strings, and distant clean guitars. It’s a beautiful piece, evoking touches of OPETH‘s softer, more emotive theatricalism in particular.

With a runtime of just over 13 minutes, the only real criticism one might level at An Audience Of Mannequins is that it’s a shame it’s not longer. All three tracks are solid in their own right, and each is strikingly distinct from the other. Anyone who loved 2018’s Frightened should definitely find plenty to enjoy here, but the EP should also appeal to those looking for a quick entry point to the band. As mentioned, hopefully it won’t be long before we hear from VOICES again, but for now this record is more than worth the little of your time it asks for.

Rating: 8/10

An Audience Of Mannequins is set for release on July 30th via Church Road Records.

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