AVGMNT - HVMAN SKIN

I’m beginning to do this thing on Facebook where once or twice a month I’ll ask for bands / musicians to post a link to their release that coordinates with the current month. Got something you released in February? Then gimme that sweet link, baby boy. And if I find something that I heavily enjoy you can bet your ass that I’ll be reviewing it. I would do it on Instagram and Twitter as well, but Instagram sucks with links and we don’t gain that much traction on Twitter. Is this a gimmick to get you to follow us on Facebook? No, I don’t care what you do. It’s just a fun little exercise for me to workout my typing skills AND potentially find some interesting new music. My ultimate choice came between two bands and I decided to flip a coin and let fate decide whomst I would talk about. 

And the band I’m talking about today is AVGMNT. Looking at their profile picture on Bandcamp you might think a bit like me; which Mortal Kombat character are they (to which they answered the love child of Cyrax and Sektor) and how many innocent cassette tapes did they slaughter to get that amount of insides all over themselves. The second question remains unanswered simply because I never asked it in the first place. Nonetheless, AVGMNT, which I assume stands for either Avengement or Augment (correct me if I’m wrong, but even if I am, this is how I’m referring to these guys from now on) is a duo currently residing in Portland, Oregon. They hammer down on electronic rock with a cybergoth edge making something that would fit quite well in the Cyberpunk 2077 universe. Let’s talk about their latest single ‘HVMAN SKIN’.

A driving EBM bassline moves the song forward as interesting electro cuts make their way into the rhythm. The vocals are almost spoken word during the verse but have a bit of a guttural edge to them. When the song hits into the chorus, it does become a bit standard for electronic rock; it’s nothing terrible or dangerous, but it’s pretty by-the-books with hammering percussion and driving guitars. The vocals, sounding almost apathetic, don’t work during this section and needed more emotion behind them. However, when we get back into the verse we get that futuristic beat that make me oh-so-happy. Also, everything sounds pretty good, I would only say that the vocals (again, especially during the chorus) need to be scaled back as they pop out a bit too much. 

This is a fun and exciting start for a relatively new band; there’s a bit of work to be done but they’re right on the cusp of greatness and they can only improve from here. Six-and-a-half out of ten.