Anna Pest ‘Dark Arms Reach Skyward With Bone White Fingers’

Anna Pest – ‘Dark Arms Reach Skyward With Bone White Fingers’

1 January 2021 – Self released

Words: Mark Green

One person heavy metal acts don’t get the recognition they deserve sometimes. Sometimes the masterminds behind these acts can’t verbally explain to others what their vision is. So, if you you want a job done right, you’ve got to do it yourself. April Hutchins aka Anna Pest is a one-woman act full of ideas and potential.  She has handled everything on this album and admits that with each release, she wants to ‘expand her musical horizons’. If you haven’t got someone to explore with, why not do it yourself and experiment, just like Anna Pest has here. If there’s one thing I like, it’s a bit of artistic experimentation because you never know what might happen. The potential is always there to create something amazing and unique if it all clicks together.

There’s a lot to take in with this album. It’s a technical fiesta, with a strong deathcore and black metal vibe, mixed with splices of math core and djent to create a whirlwind of  excellent vibes. This isn’t for the casual listener, this needs to be LISTENED to to appreciate. Likening it to other acts is tricky, but elements of Rings of Saturn, Whitechapel and Aborted and just some of the bands that come to mind.

 

‘Nadira’ is a brutal opener and a gives us a good idea for what is to come in terms of musical brutality and just how unorthodox these tracks can be. Follow-up ‘If You’re Going To Do It, Do It Now’ features Jason Evans of the ever imposing Ingested, who helps to make this track sound like someone bouncing off all four walls of a locked room. Punishing in its nature and schizophrenic in it’s structure. The insanity doesn’t stop for one second as this album progresses. ‘Skyward’ is a superb song, with clean vocals amongst all of the brutal musical battering.

From ‘Swordmaiden’ onwards, the album really picks up in musicianship and eclectic structures. ‘Ambivalence’ is a personal highlight for this. It’s got odd time structures and the mixing of different genres in to one, but the melodies and slower points really showcase the mature thinking in its development. Then following this, we are given a quick grindcore-esque blast of noise with ‘Reaping the Flesh of Zuruel’. ‘Love is Destructive’ is a great title for a track that sounds like total devastation and hatred. Penultimate track ‘Of The Black Moon And The Red Earth’ is probably the best song on the album. It’s both angry, melancholy, fast, slow, has growls, clean singing, a saxophone in the mix…and it all sounds wonderful. Finally, ‘How Disgusting’ completes the album, sounding like a dance with entrails. It’s short, it’s gory, it’s the heaviest thing on the album music-wise. A great way to end.

Anna Pest deserves a big round of applause. There is much talent displayed, whether it’s the brutal vocal delivery, song structure or the production. It all fits together in to one perfectly orchestrated album of carnage.