AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): AABODE — “MOIST”

In this article we present a full stream of the debut EP by the two-person band Aabode from the French town of Nancy. The EP’s name is Moist, and it’s set for release on September 15th by Godz Ov War Productions. The label introduces it, at a high level, with these words:

Aabode is a dissonant, haunting twisted mixture of industrial beats and death metal riffing. Low-tuned, blackened, oppressive death metal riffing provided by Aabstracter is combined with ambient noise and glitched 808’s drum patterns. Assymetric track composition is overhanged by Abyssal‘s harsh vocals.

But like most views from a high level, that summary, while useful, omits the details. So let’s move into the EP at ground level, where the riotous dangers it poses to sanity are more apparent.

Band photo by Alma Vik

Aabode begin creating mind-bending chills and thrills without delay. In the first half-minute of the first track (“Aabluvion“) roiling tones of turmoil and despair soar and descend, dismal bass tones clang and growl, the drums go off like bombs and rattle like big bounding stones in an avalanche, and a voice horrifically howls.

Madness further blooms in the music like a flowering inferno, as a guitar delivers feverish spasms and the drums erupt in destructive bursts, punctuated by sudden stops and starts.

The bass lurches and yowls, a guitar screeches and shivers, the reverberating voice screams, growls, and dimly speaks. Ethereal shimmers create celestial auras. The tempos veer without warning, and at the end everything suddenly stops, as if a door to an asylum has suddenly slammed shut.

That one song is intricate, unpredictable, unsettling, unhinged, and exhilarating. So are the other three.

“Claam” also begins like joining a riot in mid-mayhem, featuring maniacal fretwork, lunatic vocals, and hyper-speed electronic percussion, but it suddenly softens, segueing into a very odd and eerie sonic realm before spinning up into a frightening maelstrom again — and also staggering about like a drugged inmate of the bizarre asylum which seems to be the principal setting of this music, listening to near-whispered words speaking only inside their own head.

And that song is the subject of a video we’re also premiering, which, like the song, is thoroughly mind-blowing:

The next song, “Gyre“, is no more sane than anything which precedes it, but does seem to partake more openly of industrial and electronic proteins, though don’t think the grooves and glitches are stable, because instead they’re dramatically destabilizing. And of course Aabode throw in other unexpected experiences, including sizzling and insectile fretwork paroxysms, astral synths, long, blaring, siren-like tones of agony, and ghostly wailing vocals.

Following another sudden stop, Aabode close the EP with “Saaumaatre“. It has its own fair share of frenzy but also includes a big dose of ruthless jackhammering (partnered with futuristic synth expressions in the upper elevations), as well as hideously screeching vocals that trade off with harrowing roars, and a denouement of mind-ruining abrasion.

Of course, you didn’t really need that ground-level tour through the sonic asylum that is the abode of Aabode, but we had to have our own fun attempting (probably futilely) to wrestle these experiences into linguistic embodiments. Now that we’ve had our fun, here’s yours:

 

 

Aabode handled the recording, mixing, and mastering of Moist themselves. The artwork was created by Sonia Merah.

In addition to the summary quoted way up above, Godz Ov War also recommends the EP for fans of Portal, Blut Aus Nord, Godflesh, and Imperial Triumphant.

For more info about the release as we approach September 15th, check the locations linked below.

GODZ OV WAR:
https://godzovwarproductions.bandcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/godzovwar

AABODE:
https://www.instagram.com/aabodedm/
https://www.facebook.com/aabodedm
https://aabode.bandcamp.com