Album #4 from Fuck Buttons' Benjamin John Power in his Blanck Mass guise. One of the heaviest records to come across my desk in a while, there’s nothing lighthearted about this whatsoever. 2017’s World Eater had its fair share of intense passages, but where that record was interspersed with the occasional relief of a lurching 70bpm groove, Animated Violence Mild pretty much pummels you for the duration. Says Benjamin John Power: “These eight tracks are the diary of a year of work steeped in honing craft, self-discovery, and grief - the latter of which reared its head at the final hurdle of producing this record and created a whole separate narrative: grief, both for what I have lost personally, but also in a global sense, for what we as a species have lost and handed over to our blood-sucking counterpart, consumerism, only to be ravaged by it”… bloody hell. AVM takes cues from familiar touchstones - metal, high-NRG, Eurotrance - all woven together in stunning HD to creating something that’s wholly original but still sounds right at home betwixt the rest of Sacred Bones’ goth-nostalgist roster. Ever wanted to hear screeching black metal vocals over blazing gabber beats like Darkthrone and Ministry high on speed doing a terrifying new soundtrack for Running Man, Blanck Mass got you. Love the Hipgnosis vibe of the cover, too. Limited edition green variant, includes printed insert and download code.

• green colored vinyl
• digital download included
• limited edition
• music label: Sacred Bones Records 2019

reviewed by sleve mcdichael 08/2019