V:28 — NonAnthropogenic

The subtitle of this album is A View Into A Dying Existence, not the first musical depiction of earth’s apocalypse you’d say, certainly in the post-black metal genre in which V:28 operates.

The Norwegian duo (Kristoffer Oustad and Eddie Risdal) made a concept spanning over 28 songs to be released over three albums, some sort of ‘3 part meta-album’ (where did I hear that before?), the first ten presented on their debut NonAnthropogenic. On their site the band elaborates on the meaning of 28 and to me it seems the concept revolves around the end of organic lifeforms and the mechanized, artificial, ‘NonAnthropogenic’ lifeforms taking over the earth in a way unlike human genetic evolution (thus the title). I doubt if something made by man can surpass (be more ‘perfect’) than its maker, but it’s a concept fitting the apocalyptic cyborgmetal on this silver disc.

On first listen the music appears to be somewhere inbetween Zyklon and Void (the British band, not V:28 themselves who were called ‘V:O:I:D’ in an earlier stage) slower and less ‘death’ then the first but more straightforward than the latter. The music is heavy but spatious, with plenty of room for electronic ambience. Relatively simple constructions with lots of atmosphere which might not seem that special on first listen but after a few spins the music really starts to grab you. The impending doom starts to appear in the clouds of dark synthsweeps, the pounding drummachines (they already parted ways with their drummer before the recording), grinding guitarriffs and mean blackmetallish vocals.

The album was produced well by the band and LRZ from Red Harvest and Grutle Kjellson from Enslaved dropped by for vocal assistance on two tracks. Like I said: give it a few spins before drawing conclusions, NonAnthropogenic grows on you like corrosion on a rusty cyborg.