EP REVIEW: Cosmic Annulus – Ambrotos

Featuring members from Greece and Mexico, AMBROTOS are a black metal band that, despite being only two years into their careers, have managed to craft a dark, oppressive and memorable sound in a relatively short time. Their debut EP, άμβροτος, came out all the way back in September, and laid down some excellent foundations for AMBROTOS and their sound. Their follow up EP, Cosmic Annulus, comes hot on the heels of that predecessor, and acts as a much harsher and bleaker piece of music than the record that came before it, adding a cacophonous discord to their already tight and ferocious sound, with a reasonable degree of success.

Cosmic Annulus starts on an incredibly high note with Oracle Veracities – a bold, monolithic opener. This vast, sprawling song is built around cacophonous, dissonant guitars, chaotic drumming and hellish, harsh howls which all combine to make a song that is jarring and aggressive in its unerring intensity. There’s plenty of razor sharp, melody tinged black metal flourishes, with a thick and palpable death metal edge that underpins the whole of this song, and although there isn’t a lot in the way of diversity when it comes to the guitar sound, with only the adoption of a cleaner tone towards the songs closing moments being the only notable variation in the guitars, it’s nonetheless powerful and captivating throughout.

Vaggelis‘ vocals really help to carry the song, and inject some variety into the proceedings, with singing that ranges from sonorous, booming clean sections to the aforementioned, grating shrieks and gutturals, expressing a wider and more interesting range than many black metal vocalists you are likely to come across. Oracle Veracities is a very solid opening effort, and sets the listener up for the other two tracks really well.

Cosmic Annulus‘ title track is a fierce, caustic slab of black metal with dark, disjointed riffs and frenetic, energetic drumming which manages to begin on an incredibly intense note and not slow down or become more relaxed as the song progresses. It’s a full throttle, aural assault from the first note to the last, with several slight, melodic motifs peppered liberally across the track, providing some excellent, dizzying leads.

The vocals do a great job of matching the urgency and visceral rage of the music, adding a rabid, feral roar to the music and making it sound all the more monstrous as a result. Again, there’s not a lot of changes in the sound or performance style on here, but the riffs and vocals work so well that this doesn’t matter too much. Despite running at close to six minutes in length, the song flies by, ending almost as soon as it begins, seeming to come to an abrupt halt almost as soon as it picks up momentum.

AMBROTOS close Cosmic Annulus with Vortical, delivering bleak, razor sharp musicianship, made up of precise, dense guitars with tight, tremolo picked leads, primal, primitive drumming and some of the more impressive gutturals on the whole record. It makes use of a variety of different guitar tones, and makes up for the minimal approach of the previous two songs by adding in one riff after another, making it a far more engaging song than the ones that have come before it.

The vocals, tar thick and crushing, add plenty of depth to the sound, and jump out at the listener almost immediately when they come into the equation. This is a song that shifts its sound between spartan, old school black metal hooks, melodic, fiery sections and far more jarring, grating ones, making for a much more eclectic and memorable track. It once again comes to a fairly abrupt end, but the song has managed to build up to a far more natural conclusion than the song that preceded it, and it makes for a great end to a decent record.

Cosmic Annulus is a decent EP with plenty of potential for expansion and growth. There’s some great musicality and some excellent vocal performances on offer throughout the release’s near twenty minute run time, and at many points it manages to outdo much of the music on their debut. However, you get the feeling that AMBROTOS could have been a little more adventurous when it came to the songwriting. The first two tracks are built around no more than a couple of different motifs, with only the third tapping into their full songwriting potential, incorporating a variety of hooks and styles to make the song sound great. It’s this, and this alone, which prevents this record from being brilliant, but what is there is nonetheless a lot of great music, which sounds great, on here. With any luck, AMBROTOS will be able to build upon this template with their next release.

Rating: 7/10

Cosmic Annulus is out now via Sleaszy Rider Records. 

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