Their first LP release since 2021's Revelator, Plague of Locus begins with a short intro which guides us into an album of eclectic covers. I like a good cover version as much as the next metalhead, but I much prefer when a band can take a well-known song and make it their own, and this all very much sounds like The Amenta. The first vocals we hear, in the opening of 'Sono L Antichristo', a Diamanda Galás song, sound like some kind of extraterrestrial latin, taking us into the otherworldly nightmare that we expect from these guys.

'Asteroid', a Killing Joke cover, has a banging industrial chorus, and there are big, industrial vibes across this album, but The Amenta still takes us back into those alien, dissident sounds that fans dig. Tracks like 'A Million Years', originally by Wolf Eyes, are experimental soundscapes from some kind of hell.

'Crystal Lakes', a Lord Kaos classic, brings back the black metal elements, with ludicrously fast drums making the track roll along like a ferocious army tank, while other parts slow down for some menacing moshing, all blended together seamlessly in what is my favourite of the album.

'Angry Chair' has a very different feel from the Alice In Chains original, which is welcome. Even the chorus, "I don't mind, yeaaaaaahhh", which is a vocal melody that seems like it would be hard to escape the earworm we all have of Layne Staley singing it, surprises with some cool time/feel changes and more Amenta-y harmonies.

Plague of Locus is eclectic, brutal, and alien, as The Amenta should be. Production wise, they've never sounded better. Some of the vocals feel like they're surrounding the room, over a bed of crisp and menacing instruments. The mix of styles on Plague should be jarring, but instead it all melds together well, and it all sounds like The Amenta.
 

BenPM - Nightbreed Metal Radio