Review by UnhinderedbyTalent for Atvm - Famine, Putrid and Fucking Endless (2021)
Chalking up a score on my weirdshitometer this year is the full-length debut from the UK's progressive/technical death metallers Atvm. This record has been ringing around my lair since I first picked it up on a playlist here at MA one month. Sporting some obscure and colourful artwork the band deploy a lot of colour in their seven iterations of death metal giving a real sense of vibrancy and expansion along the way. The obscurity of the artwork does not really come across in the sound of the band though. Whilst the album is most definitely progressive it falls short of being avant-garde and somehow manages to stay away from being always obviously death metal at its heart. With the staccato riffing of album opener Sanguinary Floating Orb being a great benchmark for the rest of the album.
Just where Atvm do start to tread a more traditional death metal path there is always something very proggy not too far away to warp the linear narrative. The busy stabbing riffs of Ⲁⲛⲋ-ⲟⲩ Ⲙⲁⲧⲟⲩ are matched by some rock sounding cuts early on in the track to put a real sense of restraint on the raging beast; the ambient picked section taking things into a much more atmospheric lull before that raging intensity is allowed much more leash to run with. As with most of these types of albums I am drawn to the bass work and Luke Abbott does not disappoint as his strings polarise tracks nicely giving a distinct yet entertaining segregation between the more rampant rhythms and his climbing and plonking runs done seemingly on another soundscape altogether.
It is hard to put references on all of Atvm's influences but they are most definitely latter day Death than they are Scream Bloody Gore, more Martyr than Atheist and a lot less Gorguts in comparison to being more like The Chasm in their death metal credentials. Regardless of how they got here, Atvm have made Famine, Putrid and Fucking Endless sound intriguing and challenging without being bonkers. For an album title that sounds so dark and morbid there is a lot of positive energy spewing forth here and I cannot help but think that the album title was put in place with a wry smile on the faces of the band as they did so. There is little in the way of music here that makes you stop and look at the speakers in horror. Think more Critters than Chucky and you are in the right ball park of a band that is not afraid to ham it up a little whilst still retaining some authenticity to the darker side of metal at the same time.
My criticism in the main is largely the track lengths. I mean there are times when I am ready for a track to end long before it actually does and this is despite acknowledging that the band do everything in their power to keep things interesting on nearly every track. My brain just cannot process all of what they try to do at times and that may be my neurology being stretched beyond it's puny means all too easily for Atvm's liking as opposed to any genuine issue that they may have stylistically. Whereas with Ænigmatum I am onboard for the whole album, I just cannot match that enthusiasm for Atvm over the ten minutes more that it runs for, it just seems to try and cram far too much in by comparison. Still, a great find for me this year and another great opportunity for me to delve further into the realm of progressive death metal as I continue to find my feet in the modern output of the sub-genre.