Impressive, frenetic heaviness.
Norwegian four piece, Animal Alpha, certainly make an impression. Their schizophrenic sound is mainly the result of front woman Agnete Kjølsrud’s intense and manic vocals; she has a powerful voice that’s capable of a Siouxsie Sioux style melody, but also ranges from high pitched and child-like one moment to screaming at the top of her lungs the next and pretty much everything in between - but she makes it sound very easy. If the vocals lend a manic edge to the tracks this is not to cover any failings in the songs - they are in fact backing some really excellent tunes. The band swings between a goth infused dark sultriness, to melodic rock anthems to heavy duty metal and all the time pumping out fast paced, catchy and sweeping tunes that are great to sing along to and get lost in.
The variety, both instrumentally and vocally is brilliant and makes this an exciting album that keeps you coming back for more; tunes like the aptly titled’ Monster of Disguise’ which has a big epic, swirling chorus are filled with moments of beautifully judged melody. Fire! Fire! Fire! Has soaring riffs, mixed with really heavy moments and vocals that start almost like Pixies era Black Francis and meld into girly screams. This is followed by a creamy, sexy moment at the start of ‘Alarm’ where Agnete’s voice really takes off, soaring with ease up and down the scale. ‘Breed Again’ is one of the best tunes, starting gentle and floaty it soon breaks into a catchy and uplifting tune before becoming super heavy with chunky riffs and screaming • every food group covered and if you can, why not.
Full of theatrical and dramatic genre bending moments, there is never a dull moment on this record; great, catchy tunes, impressive guitars and vocals and really heavy at times. And even with all this going on the album never feels overdone or too crammed with ideas; they manage to balance everything so well you feel that they’ve achieved what they set out to do.