Over the last few years, something has definitely been happening in the American industrial metal scene: in the footsteps of the illustrious Ministry, Godflesh and the likes, a new generation of artists are torturing their machines with an intensity that's delightful to hear. Author & Punisher, Youth Code, King Yosef, Street Sects and even 3Teeth, to name but a few, all share a taste for heaviness, abrasive textures and a visceral approach. But we shouldn't forget Black Magnet, James Hammontree's project that shook us to our core with its debut album, the excellent Hallucination Scene (2020). Since then, Black Magnet have become a band and released a second album, Body Prophecy (2022). While their efficiency was still there, we were also curious to see whether Black Magnet would continue to grow and succeed in keeping their flame alive.
The truth is it doesn't take long to be convinced by Megamantra: the sound is gut-wrenching, radical and incendiary, perhaps the result of the four-piece working together from now on. Black Magnet have never sounded so full, so hard-hitting. Aware of its heritage (we mentioned above the illustrious models of the genre from across the Atlantic, there's a touch of Godflesh in this merciless demolition work begun with Endless and its riffs capable of crushing mountains), Black Magnet manage to inject their humanity into the chaos. Of course, this brings to mind the flayed Nine Inch Nails of the mid-90s (Spitting Glass and its synthetic nervousness, Night Tripping and its Closer-style beat), as well as the Marilyn Manson of the same era (it's obvious on Null + Void, which seems to dust off the most aggressive tracks on Antichrist Superstar).
Beyond the references, Black Magnet forges its own identity. It's furious, metallic, loops repeat like obsessive, hypnotic mantras as Hammontree spits out his guts, between unstoppable scansion and raging explosions. It's powerful, it's rich, the sound is teeming with ideas, the telluric massacre (the pachydermic B I R T H, crushing and massive) sometimes gives way to a groove that allows you to breathe (Better Than Love, an unlikely meeting between the Beastie Boys and Pretty Hate Machine, on industrial steroids). The most important thing about all this is that it's deeply satisfying. Black Magnet sweat, bawl and smash things up, and they do it all with a delightful violence and infectious aggression that makes you want to join them in their destruction: it's mean, it's dirty and it's absolutely irresistible!
In the end, that's the most important thing. If we feared a certain routine would set in with Body Prophecy, we come away from Megamantra wrung out and convinced that Black Magnet have released their best album yet. The assault is savage, radical, uncompromising but at the same time enjoyable. In less than half an hour, the band have found the right formula and, in a style not far removed from Drownd by the British Joe Crudgington, manage to modernise the classics of industrial metal by letting loose and adding their own torments and more modern influences. Unbridled, black, insane and cathartic, Megamantra is further proof that machines haven't finished crushing the ridiculous meat that serves as our envelope, the better to torture our souls, which were doomed anyway. Cool!
