Alien Syndrom 777 is a recording project led-by Italian Alessandro Rossi along with Smohalla's Vincent Cassar and As Light Dies' Oscar Martin on vocals. The result is a "furious cascade of avantgarde black metal, at times recalling classics like Dodheimsgard, Black Lodge, Code or the weirdest episodes of Abigor's career."
I'm glad to hear more great extreme vocals this year. Grim, nihilistic growls seem to pour forth from this guy's mouth as his vocal chords melt. This is black metal performed with some sort of mutation from radiation poisoning. This element is further emphasized by the industrial influences, which are reminiscent of a more structured and far darker version on Umbah. Choral synths float around like ghosts as discordant, distorted chords clamour up the mix.
The Bleeding Anthill..." is a touch more traditional sounding. There are some memorable guitar parts, a great portion of Opethy clean singing, and excellent layering of keys, blastbeats, and riffs. And while Alien Syndrome 777 do have some avantgarde tendencies, they're a far cry from the end of the spectrum. They share much in common with other prophetic-sounding BM acts like Outre, just with some sci-fi and industrial thrown in.
The use of ambience on the intro and "Black Box" are pretty chilling. I would like to see these ideas expanded on much more in the future, as the atmosphere created rivals that of many releases I have heard in the straight-ambient genre. In a way, this final track reminds me of the last songon Meshuggah's Koloss. It's a peaceful trance mixed with a contrasting, foreboding quality.
The full album is available for stream below. If you like your black metal extreme, but with flourishes of other clashing genres, you should defninitely check out Outer. Enjoy.