If I had had my wits about me I would have asked where Melbourne-based Aaron Osborne got the name for his solo death metal project AGLO. It sounds like “aglow”, but the only glow generated from the music is the kind of radiation from thermonuclear detonations that turns stone into molten glass. “Aglo” is also the Esperanto term for “eagle”, and there is indeed a ruthless raptor-like quality to the music as well (with listeners playing the role of field mice).
But it probably refers to neither of these things, especially since AGLO is inspired by Star Trek, and especially by the Borg, those cybernetic organisms whose mission is to assimilate the technology and organisms of other species into the hive-mind Collective that’s intent on achieving a kind of soul-devouring perfection. Perhaps AGLO is an acronym… and perhaps we’ll find out and let you know later.
But for now the focus should be on AGLO‘s new EP Into the Maze, which will be released by the wonderfully named label Gutter Prince Cabal on February 16th, and even more specifically on the song we’re premiering today — “Collector“.
Photography by Dakota Gordon
In forecasting the impact of Into the Maze, Gutter Prince Cabal refers to “the swagger and groove of Entombed’s Wolverine Blues, infused with the tar-thick pull of doom”, with the music “lumbering like some slow-crawling and atrocious beast through the murk of a polluted swamp”. Appeals are also made to fans of bands like Coffins and Crowbar.
In the case of “Collector“, the music does indeed lumber like a massive beast, the riffs buzzing with radiation and tuned to the key of fear. A massive bass undulates along while eerie high-tone leads flicker and swirl and the drums crack like gunshots. The effect is massive and murky, primitive and punishing, but also frighteningly freakish. Speaking of which, the reverberations of the guttural vocals are monstrous and macabre.
As the music heaves and hammers, moans and wails, it tightens its grip on the listener’s throat and sends shivers down the spine. Moreover, while the crushing (and hideously infectious) grooves in the song would appeal to our caveman ancestors, the music also generates an aura of implacable hostility and oppressive domination as well as a kind of cold, futuristic machine intelligence, which seem in keeping with the music’s inspiration.
The afore-mentioned Aaron Osborne wrote and performed all the music and lyrics. The six songs on Into the Maze were recorded by Lewis Noke Edwards at The Black Lodge and Jason Fuller at Goatsound. It was mixed and reamped by Taylor Young at The Pit Recording Studio, and was mastered by Brad Boatright at Audiosiege (who knows a thing or two about heaviness). The cover art was created by Thomas Sweetman.
To find out how to acquire the EP, check the locations linked below. And after that we’re also including a stream of the previously released title track “Into the Maze“. It too is a slow-moving crusher, but the moaning riffage creates feelings of agony and hopelessness, in addition to the song methodically splintering concrete with the traumatic force of its brutish blows.
PRE-ORDER:
Europe: https://hammerofexile.8merch.com/
Rest of World: https://aglobrutal.bandcamp.com/releases
AGLO:
https://aglobrutal.bandcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/aglobrutal/