Music
21 Sep 02

The Amalgamut

Their trademark sweeping metallic sounds and airbrushed vocals are present and correct, and set the band apart from the clasps of nu-metal and emo, giving them an epic quality that's quite distinctive

“MOTHERFUCKERRRRRRRR!!!” screams Richard Patrick at the start of ‘So I Quit’, before coughing up a lung.

Having spent a couple of years on the road between ’99’s cracking Title Of Record and The Amalgamut, Filter appear to have firmly concreted their industrial post-rock fetish into a darker, deeper and altogether heavier construction – no more bright and breezy ‘Take A Picture’-a-likes for these boys. Oh no.

Their trademark sweeping metallic sounds and airbrushed vocals are present and correct, and despite the slightly repetitive melodies, often turgid bassy guitar riffs and frankly ridiculous levels of phaser, set the band apart from the clasps of nu-metal and emo, giving them an epic quality that’s quite distinctive.

For evidence, check the first single ‘Where Do We Go From Here’ – a veritable power trip of seething vocals, haunting melodies and fuck off guitar lines – or perhaps the closing track ‘The 4th’, an intense eight minutes of backwards vocal loops, doomy keyboards and walls of ambient electronic soundscapes.

If you’re already acquainted and accustomed to the musings of the Filter collective, then The Amalgamut won’t hold any particularly garish surprises. This record won’t change your life or anything, but it’s definitely worth a listen.