AMERICAN
Hailing from Richmond, Virgina, american (stylized lowercase) are a mysterious raw black metal/industrial/sludge duo fully committed to the torments and un-comfort of total oblivion and obscurity. No live activity and an existence at the borderline of everything have turned this band into a frightening enigma. Influenced by such revolutionary and genre-defying acts as The Body, Leviathan, Ministry, Skinny Puppy, Craft, Godlflesh, and Blut Aus Nord, American play a blown out, disembodied, torturous and completely fucking annihilated blend of delirious hardcore punk, sludge, black metal, industrial, and noise, creating songs that ooze of almost implausible negativity and bask in ruinous self-destruction. The duo write and record everything at home on their own and have thus far released a frightening debut self-titled demo and a split with the ambient band Crone to which they contributed three tracks. Noticing their diseased and self-destructive craft early on, a then embryonal and completely unknown Sentient Ruin worked with the band in 2014 to release their debut album - Coping With Loss - on cassette, the first ever release for the label to garner any press attention or recognition, and which established the imprint as a credible force. Coping With Loss was a scary and hermetic album which introduced the world to a band being literally devoured by its torments and by its own deviated emotions, and which made listeners gasp in disbelief at the sheer cruelty of the duo’s music, with the likes of Noisey claiming that american’s music “takes you into a world of pain”, and makes you “beg to whoever you believe in to kill you”, CVLT Nation explaining that their music “advocates suicide”, and Invisible Oranges further explaining that their music “is blessed with a haunting aura thick with loathing”.