Birthed in the gutters of West Oakland in the fall of 2014, Atrament is blackened d-beat/crust band that features current and former members of Moral Void, Black September, Abstracter, Necrot, Caffa and Vastum. The band coalesced around a shared love of its members for bands like Doom, Wolfpack, Amebix, Bolt Thrower, Discharge, Axegrinder, Napalm Death, Emperor and Darkthrone, and from this groundwork has then evolved to become a conduit for some of the most negative, war-injected, bestial and barbaric punk-metal hybrids to ever see the light of day on Californian soil. Atrament are purveyors of absolute sonic filth and of total aural desecration, and are depicters of a completely wretched sonic world, in which humanity is rejected as a whole and a tomb of ash and radioactive fallout is summoned to encase it and devour it forever.
From these premises comes Atrament’s debut offering, a two-song demo that in a mere five minutes showcases with unmistakeable intensity all the band’s crude and inhuman ferocity. In this release the band rips through their two songs with harrowing aggression, summoning an utter warzone of aural devastation. Bridging gaps between D-Beat Crust and Black Metal, and showcasing obvious death metal striations in their sound, Atrament have created a debut offering that will surely please all fans of belligerent and embittered D-Beat Crust bands like Skitsystem, Tragedy, From Ashes Rise, Wolfpack/Wolfbrigade, while also pleasantly challenging the senses of all fans of blackened metal and punk-metal hybrids and of old school death metal ri-elaborations.
CVLT Nation who has dubbed Atrament as "a new and unapologetic threat in sonic form, with an immeasurable pile of violence and darkness" and Demo MMXV as "two blasts of fathomless sonic ferocity calling for the end of mankind" is now streaming the release in its entirety. We have set up a pre-order in collaboration with the band for both a digital version and an extremely limited edition cassette tape of Demo MMXV over at the band's Bandcamp page.
ATRAMENT
Demo MMXV
1. Consumed
2. World of Ash
What sets Atrament apart in the world of D-Beat Crust is their atonal, grim, dissonant and malefic-sounding riffing and their hateful and spiteful atmospheres. The black metal influences that slash their sound are as obvious as they are ominous, and as the band tears through these two tracks not only will you hear the sound of a lawless war being set off but also the malignant and forbidding sounds of the bleakest and grimmest Scandinavian black metal and of the slimiest death metal coalescing into daunting apocalyptic visions...
Atrament's Demo MMXV was recorded, mixed and mastered at Earhammer Studios in Oakland by the unmistakeable touch of sound engineer Greg Wilkinson (Noothgrush, Vastum, Iron Lung, Laudanum, Atriarch, Graves At Sea etc.) which has yielded a release characterized by raging and crushing guitars, a thundering rhythm section, furious and uncompromising atmospheres, and an absolutely ferocious vocal delivery. To top it all off on the side of absolute wretchedness, Atrament's debut demo tape will come encased in a grotesque but majestic graphic layout packaging crafted by the unforgiving hands of Stephen Wilson, an absolute master when it comes to the realm of haunting, grim and unsettling imagery. Look out for a full length LP from the band to be released in the coming months.