ANOMALY

ANOMALY “Somewhere Within The Pines”

By Theron Moore

Milwaukee death metallers, ANOMALY, are gearing up to release their second full length record “Somewhere Within The Pines” on November 25. The story driving the record involves a social media influencer, missing children, and the possibility of a pesky Spider Demon lurking in the woods nearby possibly behind the abductions. And yep, you guessed it, it’s a full blown concept record.

Let’s cut right to it. Good or bad? I like the record. It’s good, solid, death metal and I wouldn’t expect anything less from ANOMALY. Full transparency though, I didn’t like the idea of the Spider Demon, I would’ve preferred a serial killer but that’s neither here nor there. The music itself is more important and “Somewhere Within The Pines” finds ANOMALY grinding out the best music of their career.

Their strength, as showcased on this record, is their ability to write and perform music in such a way that it perfectly serves each song. There is no mandatory blast beat or death growl. Every note, riff, and guttural offering has some type of meaning behind it. Everything tells part of the story here; nothing is wasted and no filler exists.

I have to give ANOMALY a lot of credit for taking a huge risk and doing a death metal concept record, that’s tough to do especially when you’re not writing about required themes such as zombies, mutilation, and cannibalism which gets boring and non-impactful after a while. ANOMALY are pretty damn good storytellers and make “Somewhere Within The Pines” a compelling tale to tell. The music is heavy as hell with extra added dimensions of complexity and texture to it giving it an ominous and at times, otherworldly feel.

ANOMALY is a band that needs to be signed to a big label like Century Media or Metal Blade Records, someone that can put this music out and really do it justice. Check this band out and give “Somewhere Within The Pines” a strong listen, I highly recommend this album.

ANOMALY