Perhaps the most striking aspect of Belgian four-piece aMute's stellar debut is that, in spite of the band's heavy reliance on electronics, in spite of singer/songwriter Jerome Deuson's abstruse lyrics, and in spite of the intimidating lengths of their songs, there's not a single track on Infernal Heights for a Drama that isn't radio-ready. Deuson's use of digital effects and programming is quite comprehensive. His music is a sonic kudzu of clicks and pops, simulated tape hiss, fuzzed-out vocals, puffs of static, and paper-thin whines.
The synthetic filigree earns aMute a place among the current crop of experimental electronic artists emerging from Europe, yet unlike their contemporaries — post-rock collective Strings of Consciousness, for example — Deuson develops his songs along more traditional rock pathways, relying on (comparatively) more aggressive, guitar-driven melodies. In a way, the band is almost reminiscent of the Nine Inch Nails progeny of the mid-’90s. This is the sort of album Stabbing Westward or Gravity Kills would have made if they hadn't been so intent on winning over the “sixteen and suicidal” demographic: mature, complex, restrained electronic rock that still packs a kick.
“Break” starts Infernal Heights for a Drama off on solid footing. The song begins with a fractured keyboard tune — halting, stumbling, almost accidental in quality. Within seconds, Samuel Volan joins on bass, plucking out a liquid backbeat that sutures together the ragged holes. Layers of synthesized string arrangements pile atop one another to create an effect that would be beautiful if not for guest star Bryce Kushnier's rasped, obsessive entreaties to “David,” a figure alternately tragic and menacing.
The rest of the album is less overtly threatening. “Begone” gestures back to Deuson's folk roots. Built on an achingly slow guitar melody and a plaintive vocal, the song erupts into simmering catharsis when, five minutes in, guitarist Thomas Venegon hits the distortion pedal. Deuson has a real talent for composition; quite often I feel that artists are pushing it when they exceed the four-minute mark, but aMute never sound like they're noodling or padding their songs. Even nine- and 10-minute epics like “No Other Man” or “Enclosed Movements/Inner You” feel lean and predatory.
Overall, aMute is a band interested not so much in advancing the boundaries of music as they are in using technology to completely utilize every bit of space within its current borders. This makes Infernal Heights for a Drama a very rewarding album and a tantalizing hint at things to come.
1. Break
2. May Faint
3. Begone
4. Enclosed Movements/Inner You
5. When Things Are Not Going Right
6. Spread
7. No Other Man
8. EyElash : Fukt
More about: aMute
