Genre : Trap metal, Industrial metal, Nu-metal, Hardcore
Released : October 21st, 2020
Label : Blackmage Records
FFO : Marilyn Manson, Nine Inch Nails, Code Orange, Slipknot, BONES
I've been listening to Ghostemane ever since his earlier, more hip-hop inclined material and his unique take on the underground trap sound which included the abudant sampling of metal and hardcore bands.
I've had really mixed opinions on his music ever since his 2018 album "N/O/I/S/E" however.
To me it felt like he was loosing some of his uniqueness for the sake of imitating his influences. And I kind of felt the same way after my first listen of "Anti-Icon".
As someone who is familiar with both his previous material and the artists he draws inspiration from, one of my first impressions was that he was doing his best Nine Inch Nails, Slipknot, Manson and Code Orange impressions over a dark trap production.
But when I came back to this album, I tried to approach it with the mind frame of someone who would mainly listen to hip-hop and would not necessarily have that same familiarity with the aforementioned artists.
And it was then that it clicked.
From such a perspective, this stuff is genre-breaking and flips the tables on music genre identification.
This is an 808 heavy hybrid of industrial metal, hardcore, nu-metal, grunge and trap that seemlessly bounces between all of these different genres to create a cohesive sonic entity, and kinda sounds like a dying machine glitching out but somehow bringing everything together as it does so (which slightly reminded me of Code Orange's "Underneath" in some respect).
I'm still not entirely sure whether I should consider Ghostemane's work on "Anti-Icon" to be innovative or not but one thing that is certain is that the production quality on this is incredibly good, whether it's the mixing and mastering of the audio itself or the whole visual aspect accompanying the release of this album as well.
Ghostemane is definitely breaking musical boundaries and continuing to evolve as an artist and I can't see that as anything else than commendable.