Now, I wouldn’t know what a ‘Cyberpunk’ was if it turned up at my door, barrelled through me and tucked into my secret stash of Malted Milk biscuits. I do however know my music and, thus, it is is with this particular pair of ears that I summon the new release from Nottingham’s finest extreme noise merchants, Antre.
Consisting of only four exceptionally well written tracks, this EP is nothing short of remarkable. The overriding sensation that I am immediately hit with is that this is precisely the sound of the UK extreme metal scene in 2021. In a period where live shows have been an impossibility, this reminds me, far more than any other record, of what we have been missing and what we all crave for. It is a rabid onslaught of extreme metal, hardcore, thrashy riffs and coarsely ground vocals that all hang from the definable tree of black metal.
From being hit repeatedly in the face with a sooty rag throughout the opener ‘Through These Dead Eyes’ to the monstrous repercussions of standout track ‘Mask of the Saviour’, and then on to the progressive majesty of closer ‘Cursed Existence’, this is hugely well thought out and devastatingly effective.
You can take your Cyberpunk and stick it up the nearest available arsehole – this is extreme metal UK style and pushes Antre up into territories currently occupied by bands such as The Infernal Sea and Necronautical. On the back of this, and given the full length treatment, who’s to say how far they could go…
9/10