ARTOFFACT
Released a year after companion piece Null, KEN mode’s ninth LP was a masterclass in jarring post-pandemic psychosis. The band’s talent for top-tier metallic noise-rock has been proven time and again, but this go-around saw them take full advantage of Kathryn Kerr’s talents as a multiinstrumentalist to explore ever-stranger terrain. Elements of no wave and industrial spidered in through the cracks as the album jolted and spasmed, colliding to form a challenging slab that was both exhausting and exhilarating.