Ame Noire: The Tree That Bears Rotten Fruit

It has taken only ten months between the formation of Melbourne blackened death metal band Ame Noire and the release of their debut EP The Tree That Bears Rotten Fruit.
The blackened death metal sub-genre is a tricky one to navigate, get either the death metal part or black metal part wrong and everything suffers, immensely. Ame Noire have nailed down both parts pretty well; there’s a decent mix of the two styles of vocals and there’s enough death and black metal riffage flying around and some pretty impressive drumming.
Having said that, stitching all the parts together can be the tricky and considering that none of the five songs on the EP is longer than five minutes, it’s a really short listen and each song flows onto the next without much to distinguish between them, except for ‘The Wayward Home’ which features a refreshing point of interest.
Each song has the potential to be fleshed out more than what is on offer here, especially the stand out closing title track ‘The Tree That Bears Rotten Fruit’. Conversely, however, ‘Slave To The Grave’ is a short, fast and punchy track that needs little fleshing out.
Considering the short time between the formation of the band and the release of their debut EP, the guys have showcased how, in such a short time, they’ve been able to deliver a really tight and seriously heavy debut they will be able to build from in the future.
3/5
Independent
Reviewed by Paul S Taylor