Review: Igorrr – Amen

Style: avant-garde metal, breakcore (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Mr. Bungle, Thy Catalfaque, Melt Banana
Country: France
Release date: 19 September 2025

I often struggle with distractions while packing for a trip. I get my suitcase out of the closet, and that reminds me that I should bring my packable puffy jacket in case it’s cold, but I can’t find my jacket in the closet, so I go back in the bedroom, but then I figure I should pick out socks while I’m there to see if I’ll have enough without doing laundry, and I do, but then I decide to do laundry anyway, and on the way to the washing machine I pass the drawer where I keep my passport, so I check to make sure it’s there and it is, but there’s also a mostly-empty pack of gum which reminds me that I should get gum for the plane, but also I should throw out this pack because it’s probably old, and then the garbage bin is full so I take out the trash, and on the way back in I see my Amazon package with dry shampoo and makeup wipes has been delivered, so I get out my cosmetic bag to pack those, and I still haven’t found my puffy jacket.

Listening to Igorrr is basically the auditory version of this experience. The experimental metal project, spearheaded by French musician Gautier Serre, is a sort of scatterbrained amalgam of black metal, baroque, and breakcore. Igorrr has evolved over the years, from first origins as a sample-heavy solo project by Serre into a full band, and again with a lineup change following 2020’s Spirituality and Distortion that saw the male and female vocalists and drummer all being replaced. But Serre’s mad genius remains at the core on latest album Amen, and Igorrr is clearly still leaning into their slapdash, genre-bending erraticism; look no further than the aptly-titled “ADHD”, where swelling choirs and decorous flute and harpsichord go head-to-head with pulpy electronic beats, frenetic, arrhythmic drumming from Rémi Sérafino, and punctuative explosions from both harsh vocalist JB Le Bail and operatic soprano Marthe Alexandre.

Having been an Igorrr fan for the better part of a decade, I knew what to expect from Amen, and I wasn’t wrong. Critically, Igorrr isn’t wacky just because they can be. This is bespoke, artisanal wackiness: every incongruous instrumentation–the piano played using an excavator in “Headbutt”, the off-key recorder in “Mustard Mucous”¹—or abrupt transition like Marthe Alexandre’s effortless glide from opera singing into deranged squealing at 2:38 in “Limbo” is executed with precision and artistry. If this makes it sound like my head is up my ass, that’s not what I mean. I’m not ascribing some deep meaning to Igorrr, a band whose lyrics are written in an esoteric conlang² and who occasionally feature a chicken in their lineup, nor to claim that they’re doing anything other bands aren’t also doing in mashing disparate genres together. Rather, I think the band deserve praise for the assurance and skill with which they employ each element of their sound. The baroque and classical facets are reverent, poised, and grand. The black metal guitars and screams crepitate with intensity. And the squelching, jittery breakcore beats are probably the closest I’ll ever come to understanding why some people like electronic dance music.

But is Amen better than what Igorrr has done before? By the time the album comes to its comparatively understated close with “Étude n°120” followed by “Silence”, neither of which feature more than restrained electronic underpinnings to compliment their delicate classical melodies, I lean towards no. Aside from the lineup changes, there are no major deviations on Amen from the playbook established on the last two albums, just subtle iterations. The Middle Eastern tonalities which were both foundational and inspired on Spirituality and Distortion are relegated here to a supporting role, mainly on album highlight “Blastbeat Falafel”, which bursts forth with a sort of Arabian hoedown energy. Meanwhile, the choral elements have become more prominent, somewhat counterbalancing the fact that JB Le Bail doesn’t perform any clean vocals. These shifts are careful and measured rather than seismic and sweeping. All things considered, Amen feels less like a revelation than a refinement—for my money, Spirituality and Distortion still casts the longer shadow.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the more that you put into listening to Igorrr and revelling in their wanton demolition of genre confines, the more you get out of it.³ As with packing my suitcase, it can be easy to lose track of where we were going. But unlike me, Igorrr thrives in the chaos they create. Amen may not transcend the band’s previous accomplishments, but it reaffirms Igorrr’s distinctive brilliance: to turn attention deficit into anarchic design. Maybe getting distracted is the whole point.

Recommended tracks: Headbutt, Blastbeat Falafel, Pure Disproportionate Black and White Nihilism
You may also like: Pensées Nocturnes, Corpo Mente, Mario Infantes, Öxxö Xööx
Final verdict: 7.5/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Official Website | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives

Label: Metal Blade Records – Bandcamp | Facebook | Official Website

Igorrr is:
– Gautier Serre (samples)
– JB Le Bail (vocals)
– Marthe Alexandre (vocals)
– Rémi Sérafino (drums)
– Martyn Clément (guitar)
With guests:
– Mike Leon (bass)
– Timba Harris (violin)
– Lili Refrain (vocals)
– Trey Spruance (guitar)
– Scott Ian (guitar)

1. Yum! ↩︎
2. Short for “constructed language”. ↩︎
3. This is also why Igorrr live shows are so much fun. ↩︎