An Axis of Perdition – Apertures (Review)

This is the fifth album from UK industrial black metal band An Axis of Perdition.

Apertures contains 48 minutes of malignant dark terror. It’s an industrial black metal vehicle for extradimensional horror that uses the listener’s mind against them. Enter into the world of An Axis of Perdition at your peril.

Combining industrial beats, twisted melody, visceral atmosphere, vicious blasting, harsh daemonic screams, dark ambient expressions, and haunting nightmare sounds, An Axis of Perdition flay the mind of the listener with their aural assault. The sound is abrasive and grim, but the elements of atmospheric immersion and dissonant melodic depth make for music that’s cold and unforgiving, yet surprisingly immersive and engaging.

An Axis of Perdition know very well how to craft this sort of atypical blackened darkness. The well-written songs bleed negativity and depravity, taking the listener forcefully on a journey into horrifying realms that are not for the uninitiated. Slithering from lightless places, the songs pulse with malevolent life as they consume the listener’s sanity.

Apertures offers a merciless psychic barrage of sound and atmosphere. It warps and corrupts with is very presence, but rather than an impenetrable wall of noise, it’s actually an album to lose yourself in; Apertures is a mood-focused work, with a foul otherworldly atmosphere that’s extremely enticing, one that’s both surreal and deadly.

The return of An Axis of Perdition is a malformed triumph, and I urge you to give yourself over to these sickening tormented soundscapes.