French multi-instrumentalist and producer Gautier Serre has been operating under the name IGORRR for twenty years now, yet each new record still resounds with a startling freshness and radical vitality. Steadfastly unclassifiable fifth album “Amen,” maintains this impact, blindsiding the listener with a new set of exploratory curveballs and continuing to surprise and unnerve even the most attuned enthusiast. "This album is definitely darker than its predecessors, it has such a very weighty and solemn vibe that has never been reached before," explains Gautier. "The fact that I recorded a real choir in a church helped this a lot, but above all there has been very long and meticulous work on the sound and the choice of instruments, and deep experimental research to create a unique sound design.”

The album has 12 songs, and “Daemoni” is first. It begins with fat keyboard notes that are black and twisted. The liquid begins to harden as the riff comes in, and the vocals sound like shadows in the darkness. They also turn and grow to powerful harsh screams. “Headbutt” features piano mixed in with the plate of Death, and the combination of Classical elements with Extreme elements is quite fascinating. The clean female vocals provide a contrast that is hard to describe, but it works. “Limbo” begins with that full on choir Gautier was talking about. It’s solemn, as church often can be, but also has a dark gentleness. Female clean usher in the full scope of blackness, and it is thick, covering the ground you walk on and the air you breathe. A powerful groove emerges, and you can’t help get caught up in it.

“Blastbeat Falafel” has an odd, almost playful sound coming from the bass notes, and a bit of a Middle-Eastern flair, but it is still a dark offering. Gautier experiments with some electronica also, and the harsh vocals are disgusting, sounding like pukes of bile. “ADHD” has keyboard notes that sound like…well…wet farts. The rhythmic work is amazing, and it’s hard to follow at times. So far, you are getting  lot of diversity from the album. “Mustard Mucous” is heavily angled with beams as strong as adamantine, but again, there is a causal playfulness to the song at times. Thick bass notes carry the bottom end and the amount of changes in the sky are faster than you can count. “Infestis” has a tense entrance, and you can feel the earthquake coming. First, a distant rumble, and then it descends. The main riff is weight and powerful, sounding like something out of GOJIRA’s playbook. The sickness grows until it has taken over your entire body.

“Ancient Sun” has a good deal of straight up melody from piano notes and clean guitars, but that darkness still lurks behind it. Choirs come in for vocals, but they are very somber, almost like the scene of a nun praying as the world comes to an end. “Pure Disproportionate Black and White Nihilism” has steady vocal chants that sound like something out of a horror movie. What is it about Latin that carries these images so strongly? The main riff is powerful, bossy, and so aggressive, and weighted keyboards notes drop like meteors from the sky. “Étude n°120” is just a minute-and-a-half of acoustic guitars, and they are elegant in their simplicity. “Silence” closes the album. Soft piano and female vocals carry the sound on a breeze. More fat electronic notes swoop in, coloring the sound black, before the softer sound returns once again.

This album plays like the grand experiment of a mad scientist who has wired every song with unpredictable current. One moment it’s hammering you with chaotic riffs, the next it’s spiraling into strange atmospheric passages, and then it mutates again into some twisted electronic pulse. Two constants keep the chaos tethered. The first is an oppressive darkness that saturates everything, no matter how far the music strays stylistically. The second is the electronic element, which doesn’t just decorate the songs but electrifies them—like jolts to the nervous system. It’s a true testament to the idea that sometimes the most brilliant results come not from order, but from the carefully orchestrated chaos of a mind unafraid to embrace madness.