Band:	Ancst
Album:	Culture Of Brutality
Style:	Crust Punk, Black metal
Release date:	May 2024

01. Armed With Despise
02. Of Rusty Knives
03. Chasing Horizons
04. Spanking Your Laser Brain
05. Damaged Goods
06. Destination Nowhere
07. Doing Your Part
08. Vitreous Conformity
09. Beneath These Hills Of Iron
10. Negativity Bias
11. Whiteboard Criminal
12. Teeth Into Flesh
13. Edge Of Reason
14. Keyboard Wars
15. Icons Of Filth
16. Tearless Oblivion
17. Thanks For Nothing
18. Positive Vibes Only
19. Gatekeepers From Hell
20. Lowborn Extinction



Ancst: crust punk maniacs, dark ambient worshippers, blenders of melody and ferocity. A band of many faces.

Ancst (initially known as Angst before they learned that c's are cooler than g's) are a German band that play extreme metal. Yeah, that doesn't really narrow it down much. But, if you give some of their albums a listen, I'm sure you'll agree that their style is surprisingly hard to categorize. Some sites (including Metal Storm) have labeled them as crust punk, which only barely covers half the truth. So, even though I myself am very new to this band, allow me to give you some insight into Ancst’s sound.

Ancst, despite their namesake, perform a fearless, aggressive, rugged energy akin to thrash and hardcore, especially in the vocal delivery (more on that in a bit). The style of instrumentation is quite varied, showcasing alternatingly black metal tremolo-picking, heavy breakdowns, and hints of melodic death metal, too. However, these descriptions only cover one side of Ancst’s identity.

While most of their 12 years of musical output have largely been concerned with perfecting this crust punk / black / melodeath approach, they've also spent a good deal of time working on a very different style altogether: dark ambient metal. On 7 cassette releases, including Lamenting A Dying World and Stormcaster, Ancst present lengthy, immersive passages of nothing but ominous atmosphere. It might look boring on paper, but the unnerving droning and ambient noises combine to deliver an excellently frightening soundscape. Following their 2018 album Celestial, Ancst helpfully released a compilation of this side-gig of theirs, titled Anomaly, encompassing 29 tracks that total to three hours of ambience.

Their newest release, Culture Of Brutality (which I should actually be writing about), has no time for slow build-up and subtle tension. As its name suggests, this album is all about those ferocious, thrashy, crusty elements, delivering 20 short tracks that total to a mere 34 minutes of high-speed fury. Yet, amongst the heaviness, there also flicker by brief instances of elegant guitar solos, melodic riffs, and calm acoustic playing such as on “Beneath These Hills Of Iron”, “Edge Of Reason”, or “Tearless Oblivion”. In addition, a couple of audio samples describing “an endless abyss”, the “extinction of our species”, and that “everyone has a black hole inside of them” demonstrate that Ancst aren't your average band of senseless metal rage.

The vocals are the only real issue I have with Ancst. Admittedly, the strained yells of the vocalist convey convincing anguish that definitely adds to the emotional weight of the music. However, as the album continues, the constant yelling becomes extremely repetitive, turning stale real fast, before ultimately reaching annoying levels. I would recommend that Ancst put slightly more variety in the vocal styles, or simply give the vocals a break, allowing the music to breathe a little.

Overall, the musicianship on Culture Of Brutality is appropriately brutal, with satisfying pieces of melody strewn across the tracklist. The short songs are an interesting songwriting choice, not giving the listener a break amidst the rapid frenzy of riffs. However, as a result, it's hard to recall memorable songs, as all the action blends together. This is probably a conscious decision, but it might not appeal to all listeners. Additionally, as mentioned before, the metalcore-like vocals can become quickly tiring, detracting from the otherwise solid instrumentation. In the end, Ancst provide a large spectrum of styles, ranging from crust punk to dark ambient metal. And while not all elements may be appealing, I believe every extreme metal fan will be able to find something to enjoy in Culture Of Brutality.