If you've got a hankering for chiptunes, and metal, and don't want to bother with listening to them separately, then I have an album for you. Norrin_Radd has just released a mad synthesis of dirty in your face metal with the pristine digital bleeps of chiptune music. This is Anomaly, the long awaited follow up to his Pause debut way back in 2007, so anticipation is high for this album. I'm glad to say that he doesn't disappoint.
Anomaly is the newest album from Canadian chiptune artist, Norrin_Radd. Four years in the making, Anomaly is a concept album following a mortal traveler exposed to the horrors of infinite time and space. Musically, Anomaly weaves together the genres of technical death metal, prog rock, and thrash into extremely complex and anomalous arrangements. Arrangements created to mirror the confusion of the horrified traveler. Technically, Anomaly is a hand crafted tribute to the style and sound of the Nintendo Entertainment System, following all of the same limitations imposed by the original hardware. Albeit taken to a further level with the addition of growling DPCM vocal tracks and post production.
Kicking off with the title track Anomaly, Norrin throws down 15 tracks of chipmetal limited only by the sound chip of the NES and his own metal growls. The title track sets you in the right mood for the album, with the fast paced, pulsating chip leads, over the top chip drums, and of course, those in your face vocals. This album will fit right in with anyone's chiptune collection, as well as metal collection.
Not every tune has that raw dose of rock though, some tracks take an instrumental approach to great effect. Such as the spiraling madness in Process of Macrocosmic Emaciation. The song seems to whirl around the brink of insanity until we reach past the intro and things start to come together into an ominous but adventurous tone. Then there is the exciting, almost battle like mood of Never to Return, which you may remember from one Beep City compilation. Although in the context of a space-weary traveler takes on a whole new light. With it's high riding adventure riffs coupled with the spacey high notes we get a picture of a once scared traveler who has not only come to terms with space, but has actively begun to tame his small section of it.
This album is a definite must have, not only for metal fans, but for anyone to see the incredible genre spanning nature of chiptunes coupled with the incredible melodic and technical work of Norrin_Radd. Download the album free via the Anomaly download page.