Hailing from Trondhein in Norway and comprising of members of such unearthly delights as Tactile Gemma, Manes and even Goat The Head, one would expect Atrox to be a little on the nutty side. Receiving three frankly odd CD’s from the ever reliable Season Of Mist and giving them all a two track spin this one instantly found itself on my review pile. Glad it did too as despite the fact that this is the group’s fifth full length album it was my first proper encounter with them and ‘Binocular’ is most definitely an album that requires a closer look.
I guess the cover of this does fit the music kind of well, although at first I thought it was kind of naff, it does rather illustrate the avant-garde mindset that is on show within this tightly constructed album. It should also be mentioned perhaps that my promo copy and no doubt the shop bought one as well itself, is a dazzling shade of orange! Electronic bleeps and some samples that sound as if they have escaped from a cop movie or Western bring us into opener Retroglazed. You are literally knocked flat by singer Rune Folgerø and his clean sweeping vocals that are truly reminiscent of both Simen Hestnæs and Kristopher G. Rigg; in other words absolutely perfect. The music itself is completely schizophrenic and does blend the eccentricities of Arcturus, Ulver, Ved Buens Ende and Manes together in a maddening stew of out-there-ness. Be warned it is also totally addictive, one play and you will be hooked. There is shit-loads going on in each and every track as well, the keyboards fly all over the shop, there is an unhinged psychedelic air about things and the lyrics are totally nuts. You don’t actually notice that the first number has finished and you have been thrust into the midst of ‘No Coil For Tesla.’ A moody acoustic passage at the end of this is your first pause for breath.
Samples are not over-used and are all intriguing, pretty much like the music and even the song-titles themselves. For instance what the hell is a ‘Headrush Helmet?’ Well this is a band who also had an album called ‘Orgasm’ so the mind boggles. Moody Manes like passages of electronica provide sparseness and edge whilst the music itself is not actually rushing, building things up for storming fruit and nut choruses full of funk and nonsensical lyrics. ‘Tight Tie’ starts off in such a ghostly, gloomy manner you cannot help but shiver, sampled voices loom out of some sort of distorted space time continuum before the actual track hones in on you in an unhurried fashion. The title track follows and injects a bit of a blackened roar into the vocals as it weaves and unwinds with some bombastic fervour, heavier than anything else yet heard on the album. Plenty of eclectic prog-bound keyboard cascades slow it all down though.
Finishing off with ‘Transportal’ you really do feel like you have been beamed off to another dimension over the last ¾ of an hour, this is heady stuff and manically enthusiastic. Could it be something they put in the water in Norway? Well this is the country that all the aforementioned bands as well as Fleurety and the similarly deranged Vulture Industries all hail from so it seems a foregone conclusion. Atrox are a bottomless well, worth drinking deep from and embracing the madness.
http://www.atrox.no
http://www.myspace.com/atroxno
