aumIf you follow labels like I do then you’ll be well aware that anything coming out from Iron Bonehead is usually some of the filthiest diabolical music on the planet and here they do it again with the mysterious and secretive French band Aum, whose sole ambition is to corrupt and pollute the very essence of your being via seven tracks of sheer aural abomination. My attempts at translating the Hindi based title proved challenging but suffice to say the bands sonic vision is steeped in philosophical debate set against a tyrannical death metal assault layered with pernicious befouled blackness.

Is it possible for some music to be classed as anti-music! Whether it is or it isn’t Aum, like many of the bands compatriots, unleash a nightmarish album. The moment it starts you are thrown headfirst into a quagmire of plague riddled death metal that takes a moment or two to initially adjust to its malfeasance and salivating purulence. My rhetorical question about anti-music does not mean this is an all-out noise or war metal affair, far from it, but the resulting horror you find yourself listening to is one that is truly disturbing, a dispassionate atrocity yet blindingly effective. Whilst the majority of this release is death metal of the most bludgeoning and unforgiving kind the song writing encompasses slower sludge laden traipses, trawling the depths of unmitigated beastliness as the album continues with “Patisandhi”. A lengthy track that plunges you into abyssal defilement creating an uneasy ethos equating to a murderous killer lurking around the next corner made even more creepy by the atmospheric close of the track.

The suffocating sound is similar to Autokrator’s debut creating a miasmic aura as “Dukkha” begins with surreal chanting and bell noises leading into a dank, cloying riff and slow pervading drum beat. I love the drum sound on this album, it has a resonating bone brittling intensity especially the double kick which is invasive and pulverising. The grisly and fetid “Brahmastra” is monstrous as the double bass roars through the song initially before letting loose the animalistic blast section. “Hemvati” is eerie, no actually its truly disturbing with a distorted guitar riff leading into an unearthly blast section. Even here the song veers from one subgenre to another as this one slows to an oozing barrage courtesy of the kick drums that pulse with the bass as a blackened heart. Vocally this album trawls the deepest gutters of stomach churning tones suiting the album perfectly and adding hideous toxicity to the whole release. Closing this ordeal is the towering gargoyle of “Vipashyana” which develops from a slow funereal beat and noxious riff enveloped by smothering bass. The riff break is immense as the expected speed insertion fails to materialise initially preferring to pound with a slow double bass. As the track nears its finale the pace rockets with blurring snare blast and demonic death breath vocals leaving the listener with a feeling of sequential poisoning at the hands of French band Aum.

Creating a shroud of secrecy surrounding the band members I wouldn’t be surprised if this outfit has members of Aosoth and Autokrator in the ranks but whoever they are the result is horrifyingly effective.

(8.5/10 Martin Harris)