Hump Day Hot Ticket: Aggronymph “I Want You”

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One of my favorite newer bands on the scene right now, Aggronymph has a new video out and I can't wait to review it!

As I have written in past reviews, this band has a diverse sound to them, merging together all these different styles and fitting them together in such a wonderful way.

In the video for “I Want You”, there are some similarities to their previous video, “Moonlight”. There are shots of the band's hometown of Yichang, China (which has some very lovely scenery, I might add!). This time, there is daytime footage including the band's vocalist, Elain. She looks sad and pensive, matching the mood of the song as she walks down the city streets all alone. As evening comes, we see Elain among the busy city nightlife; sitting alone in a coffee shop, wandering aimlessly through shops, up stairs and down sidewalks, in the futile attempt to ease her loneliness. The video ends with Elain running through an empty field, as an aerial shot pans away to show the lone figure amidst the world that is still moving along.

For more information on Aggronymph, visit the band's official Facebook page.

Hump Day Hot Ticket: Aggronymph “Moonlight”

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It's been a while since I've done a “repeat performance” featuring a band I have written about here before, but this has been a relatively slow week, and this video is still fairly new so I thought now was as good a time as any to do a write-up.

The last time I wrote about Aggronymph, their brand-new video “`Til Life Sets us Apart” had just premiered, and this video that I am reviewing now (“Moonlight”) had been released shortly before that. With all the attention and promotion the band wanted to give to “Life”, “Moonlight” tended to get lost in the shuffle, so I thought I would let a little time go by before picking it up and giving it some attention.

As I mentioned before, Aggronymph's style is a melting pot of genres ranging from electronica to gothic metal to pop; with enough melodic sensibility to ensure that the music never gets overwhelmed by too many differing sounds piled on at once. That's a tricky balancing act for even the most accomplished artists to pull off, so it says a lot about Aggronymph's talent that they can pull this off with such panache.

Visually, however, the “Moonlight” video is opposite from the band's overall sound: it is is a basic 5-minute journey through busy city nightlife. The buildings are illuminated with neon lights, while the moon hangs unobtrusively above, almost invisible. A camera captures the shuffling feet of people walking to and fro, as we view them from upside-down. The bright headlights of cars and buses whiz past us as they race through the city streets. All of these sights make the lyrics more profound: “Gaze at the moonlit sky, it is the most divine of sights...This beauty of the moonlit sky is my only source of light”.

For more information on Aggronymph, visit the band's official website.

Hump Day Hot Ticket: Aggronymph “Till Life Sets us Apart”

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During this past year—both while reviewing material for this blog and writing for other sites—I have come across a lot of great talent from around the globe. One band that caught my attention in 2016 that I have not had the chance to talk about here is Aggronymph, from China. Though they consider themselves to be “electronic gothic metal”, I think that description only scratches the surface of what Aggronymph's sound really is. Fusing sounds together from all sorts of different genres from electronica to heavy metal to rap, Aggronymph is one of the most interesting new bands I have come across as of late. Usually, when bands try to combine so many different musical styles together, it becomes a mish-mash of sounds where each is trying to be heard over the others, but none of them ever standing out quite enough. But Aggronymph has this knack for weaving all these different influences together in such a way where nothing feels out of place, and sounds you never expected would work together somehow make for intriguing harmonies that capture your interest. To try and sum them up in the most basic terms, Aggronymph is something like Linkin Park meets Lacuna Coil, but they are anything but sound-alikes of either band.

The video to the title track of their latest EP, “Till Life Sets us Apart” appeals to my love of conceptual videos (i.e., music videos with a storyline) by showing a sad and twisted tale of co-dependency and drug abuse. The video follows a heroin-addicted couple who feed into each other's addictive personalities as they continue to chase the high that they seek. There is even a disclaimer at the start of the video to inform the viewer of graphic imagery. The music is dark and mournful; the band is seen wreathed in smoke and eerie red lights.

For more information on Aggronymph, visit the band's official website.