From Alexandria, Egypt, Aura Abnormal arrive with a project that, on this second full-length, Stomach Filled with Roaches, blends experimental trap with industrial, dark ambient and noise, tearing down without hesitation the boundary that separated it from the debut album Deliria, released only a few months earlier.
With 13 tracks across 36 minutes, the record opens with a buzzing sound that immediately serves as a warning, letting us know the experience ahead will not be comfortable. From there comes “Mass Psychosis”, in a more hip hop register, unfolding within a lyrical universe that is not as dystopian as it wants to appear, while still giving us the sense of living in a daily hell, without hope, in a reality manipulated by drugs, media noise and technological paranoia.
In fact, the best way to experience this record is through YouTube, with visualizers for each track adding a psychedelic edge that makes the experience more sensory and, paradoxically, easier to sit through. That is, of course, if the platform’s ads do not break the trance halfway through. Through imagery, dry beats and industrial layers, we are swallowed by an album that was not made to win over fans of pure, straight-up metal, even if there are moments where the aggression and the emotions it generates recall late-90s/early-2000s nu metal, as if we were listening to a long interlude. As we move along this dark path, we find collaborations with Kill Ebola, Slain, BBGLOS, The Vírus and Antidote, BLV CLOVDS and Obad, each leaving their imprint on Aura Abnormal’s chaotic universe.
Although Aura Abnormal are clearly prolific in terms of how many releases they put out in a single year, it is possible to draw a strong contrast with what came before, as is the case with the debut Deliria, which presents a doom sound that is far more electric and drawn-out, making it an excellent starting point for entering this world before facing the abyss and the dizzying sensation of the trap/noise on Stomach Filled with Roaches. One of the highlights comes in the form of “Celeste Rivas”, which points to the case of Celeste Rivas Hernandez, a teenager whose body was found in the trunk of a vehicle associated with the musician D4vd. Here, discomfort becomes psychosis, as if we are in the middle of a nightmare we cannot escape.
“Ana Al Shaytan”, the only track in Arabic, which translates to something like “I Am the Devil”, closes the record in style, delivering the most uncomfortable moment in the best sense. It keeps us fully alert, not because of the language, but because of the urgency in its tone and the way the sound wraps around us and refuses to let go. Stomach Filled with Roaches is not for everyone. But after getting to know Deliria and some of this artist’s early work, I can see the ambition to try something different and to do it with identity, resulting in an album that achieves what, in my view, matters most: provoking an emotional response. And this record lives up to its name, leaving us with an uncomfortable, even physical feeling that something inside us is moving.
Listen to “Celeste Rivas” on YouTube:
