Seattle’s Black Agent follows up last year’s Industrial Ruination with another strong outing in Dehumanized. And, like before, the band shares its views of the world backed by a sonic potpourri of electronics.
Opening with The World Is A Hell, the listener is immediately sucked into a two-and-a-half minute wall of sound, signaling the beginning of a nine-song decent into Black Agent’s grim and gritty view of the world. Shot Down follows this with its declarative statement:
Dollars explain your
Body count
Singer Jason Pit acknowledges that there’s elements of personal loss that went into this album, more so than Industrial Ruination, which was more of a COVID era social indictment. Songs like Shot Down, Frozen Flowers and Broken Mind address the personal demons of mental illness, addiction and self-harm that many of us face. Modern Mannequins continues this examination:
Pushed out
Strung out
Pain throughout
Pray to the chemicals that she finds
So far, I’ve been examining the lyrical content of Dehumanized, and for good reason. Black Agent never pulls punches in the articulate way they paint an easily relatable picture of the ugliness all around us – both inside and out.
However, I don’t want to overlook the music itself, which grinds and pulsates in ways that really fuel the dark tone of Black Agent’s sound. Saying an industrial band has a “classic, old-school” sound seems kind of funny to me. But fans of such industrial legends as Skinny Puppy will find what they’re looking for in these nine songs.
The appropriately-titled Show’s Over closes out Dehumanized the way it went in: unrelenting and unapologetic.
Those of you who are familiar with Black Agent will be very satisfied with Dehumanized and newcomers will hit the ground running while getting up to speed.
https://remissionentertainment.bandcamp.com/album/dehumanized
