Stop the social media machine for a second because we have an OG here! Yes, this has been the year when Disso-Death and Disso-Black have taken over Metal for good, but if there’s one band that was already melting flesh in this style before it was cool, it’s Gigan! The Order of the False Eye remains, to me, a classic that anyone in love with this inhumane style should have in their collection. Honestly, Gigan has always delivered quality, so my expectations for Anomalous Abstractigate Infinitessimus are gigantic (pun intended!). Let’s dive in!
You’re not going to see me writing that album title again, so let’s get it clear—Anomalous isn’t dissonant in the way you’re used to. It’s closer to Pyrrhon and The Dillinger Escape Plan in sound. Yet, Gigan manages to convey a level of abstract chaos that leans more on atmosphere. There are moments where it feels like you’ve got three different songs playing in separate windows at the same time. That’s the kind of destruction and sonic nihilism we’re dealing with. It’s like watching your physics teacher gradually escalate the difficulty of a problem on the board until even they look hopelessly lost, leaving you to deal with the mess alone later that night.
Anomalous embraces weirdness, but it doesn’t abuse it. This is key, given how inaccessible Gigan can be by default. Sure, there are moments to catch your breath between sections, and a faint sense of melody sometimes feels like someone throwing you a life vest in a sea storm. But even then, you’re still battling hypothermia and the unforgiving rage of this vortex to hell that’s spitting at you. Ironically, Anomalous turned out to be easier to digest than I expected, though that might just speak to how atrophied my taste has become at this point.
Now, onto the things to be mad about—or, well, not mad, just cautious. While I think Anomalous may have a hard time standing out this year, simply due to the sheer amount of Disso-Death flooding the scene, my only valid criticism is the album’s structure. It’s more postmodern than a Baudrillard book. This isn’t new for Gigan—it clearly likes it this way—but for me, it causes the pacing to suffer, though not too much. Also, don’t expect any significant departures from previous albums, yet that might be more of a positive than a negative.
If we ever achieve interdimensional travel and something goes horribly wrong (assuming those dimensions even exist—I’ll believe it when I see it experimentally proven!), Anomalous will be the soundtrack to the incomprehensible horror those travelers will face. But for us, the people trapped on this blue rock, I guess it’s a fitting representation of the fury and anxiety of running out of toilet paper in a public restroom. Anyway, go check this monstrosity out!
Label: Willowtip Records
Release date: 25 October 2024
Website: https://www.facebook.com/Giganmusic/
Country: USA
Score: You can listen to this in 4D, or 4.0/5.0
Metal Eclipse Reviews 