Stripped down to the elements, Anomie in theory could be excellent with a blend of black metal, gaze, ambient and middle-eastern influences but the execution lacks in both songwriting and production. The album starts of ferociously with blast beats and distant black metal yowls before transitioning into a bridge of tribal percussion and synth. While these things could work together, it feels rather sudden and Violet Cold lacks the grace and songwriting technique to really make their vision come together all that effectively. This does not just apply to the first track but also to the rest of the 53 minute record that tends to drag on and on. One of the major production issues is on the vocals and synth. The vocals sound way too drowned out and distant, they do not evoke any emotion and are impossible to grasp onto. The synth at times sounds out of place and the tones chosen do not jive well with the black metal guitars; this is really obvious in the track Lovegaze. All in all, Anomie comes off as somewhat formulaic in its songwriting and at the end of the album there aren't many memorable moments to go back to despite the music itself sounding fairly good for the most part.
1 Bumps | Bump |
