Resonance

It took four albums, but Antigama finally did it! They reached their potential completely!

I have not heard the debut, so I don’t know how that compares. Discomfort was a strange album that was haphazard and a little chaotic. Then came Zeroland, which was pointing Antigama in the correct direction, but it was ultimately too short, although it kept fans craving for what would come up after that. Then this one, Resonance, is their magnum opus (at the moment). They’ve taken everything that made them good and crammed it into one awesome album, without having potential listeners reaching out for the skip button.

For starters, the production here is excellent. Everything is clear, and no one element is hidden or exposed too much. Having a sound that’s not too grating on the ears that they’re basically being exfoliated in the process is always a good thing. Not to mention that they chose a good length for the album, and didn’t leave it too undersized, which plagued Zeroland, which would’ve been a great album had it had more meat in it. 32 minutes here is a good length…not over-staying its welcome, not leaving too early.

The biggest change is the drumming, as they have more of a central role in the music than they have before. It sounds like the drummer has had more additions to his kit, because he uses a lot of smaller toms frequently (from careful listening, there’s probably three smaller ones next to the normal toms). There are a lot of drum breaks around, particularly the second half of the album. The most noticeable instance is the small tom drum solo in “No,” where the music stops, but the drummer keeps it going. The same drum breaks are present in “Seismic Report,” “Psychonaut”, “Asylum,” and twice in “Stars.” In fact, the drums are used as an outro to the album, which is a nice inclusion.

The riffs here are simply better, as well. There’s a lot of stop/start action, which I absolutely love, in “Pending” and at 0:09 on “By And By.” “Psychonaut” is a much slower song with a repeating riff that goes for the whole song, yet it doesn’t feel tired or overused, and it works well with the slow drums. It’s a good break after the insanity that preceded it. The riffs are a lot catchier and stick in your head much longer than they did on previous albums, which can only be a good thing for Antigama, as their writing abilities have reached high potential here.

The vocals are mean as shit. They always were, to be honest, but they are on a different level here. His growling has gotten better along the way, and they’ve reached their best levels here. Unfortunately, he left the band before Warning was released, but these are some great vocals. They definitely give the music an aggressive edge. There are some vocal “lines” present, if you could call them that, on “Pending” and “Asylum,” which are in tandem with the guitars. Whether they are from the vocalist is unknown, but they sound strange and oddly fitting.

It took a while, but I’m glad that Antigama finally realised the potential they had in the band and created this masterpiece. It is one of my favourite death/grind albums, and is the album by this band that I reach for most frequently. It blows all their other material out of the water, and will more than likely remain their best album of their careers, although I hope I’m wrong.

What these polish grinders offer to the ear, is something I find hard to explain to people when they are hearing it. Antigama (almost sounds like an electronic toy), produce such a different course on the grindcore plate.
It's almost like a space journey, with many asteroids along the way, viciously breaking into your sound system.

The thing that gets me about this album, is the diversity and different pace/take on the genre that is "grindcore". Blast-beats are offered every now and then at a blistering fast rate, as well as psychotic mashing of the guitar chords, with catchy rhythms (eg. After, and Pyschonaut), but that is usually what grindcore is all about.
In "Resonance", it seems to be a different story. An almost electronic sound of random bleeps, drum splashes, vocal effects, and guitar work is splattered all over this album. For example, tracks such as "Barbapapex" and "Shymrok", creating a bizarre mood of drowned sounds, warping glitches, and exotic guitar work.

In the sound department, this album is well produced and has a very crisp noise to it. The drums time signatures are completely random in most of the scattered tracks (ending of "Stars".. had no clue what the hell was going on), usually not focusing on a certain beat, but just flying all over the toms and the many different symbol sounds, which almost make the song sometimes un-enjoyable, but it usually catches back into a more easy listening track.
In the guitar cabinet, I didn't feel much is happening, I couldn't find any catchy riffs, as most of the fret work is suffocated by the drum annihilation and vocal fury.
Speaking of vocals, I think they shine/destroy everything in their path. The yelling £ukasz Myszkowski unleashes upon the microphone, is perfected with angered screams, alongside life struggling, psychologically challenged lyrics

Antigama experiment with many recipes that aren't in the grindcore cook book, which obviously means a lot, as they have created their own style of electronic, ballistic-core music.

Tracks I recommend - Persuit, Seismic Report, Order, Barbapex, Pyschonaut, No, After, and Types of Waste