Review Summary: What happens when a song is made to make you distressed and then say it's sorry, only to see your reaction and then punch you in the face?
It could also plan ahead and ambush you like you're a child taking a strangers candy, only to kidnap you and lock you in a small claustrophobia inducing air-tight room. It would be in complete control of your breathing while holding you hostage as your skin amasses goose bumps as you sit there in shock.
What the hell is going on? You ponder, without taking a breath.
In this state it is beautifully tormenting you by forcing mental images of magnificently hand-crafted woven blankets upon a nice warm bed. It then gives you the bed, the blankets and caresses your cheek as you start breathing again. There is only one problem, you are still in the same room with no way out and you don't even realize because you are wrapped in its intricate serenity.
It then pours gasoline all over the magnificently hand-crafted woven blanket and flicks a lit match onto it. It watches you squirm before you are engulfed in the flames. You then wake up and Track 2 is starting, are you ready to do it again?
This is Post-Metal.
So how does
Amenra differentiate from the others in this genre? Well they rely heavily on trudging sludge riffs to bore into your aural senses more so than most. They focus on death in every single song they write, every aspect of their album is black as the night sky, every single riff, as well as every single scream is set to traumatize a non-experienced listener. Everything about
Amenra sweats out possibly the darkest feelings you will ever get from listening to a band. Place your headphones upon your head for this one because as soon as you put the first track
Silver Needle. Golden Nail on, you are surrounded by an eerie build up with chant-like whispering and a soft pitter patter of the snare drum. It has you already preparing your defenses as you sense the threat of the incoming hurricane about to ravage through your metaphorically built house. When the hurricane finally reaches it's aural destination it tears up your imaginary white picket fence and impales it through your window as glass hails down upon your tiled floor.
Hurricane
Amenra has just landed and it's here to stay for 48 minutes. Its riffs will leave you hypnotized. They don't change much at all though, which leads to it being its main downfall as well. If there wasn't the calm in the eye of the storm starting with the track
Razoreater it would become too repetitive. The song stops suddenly to a near complete silence with clean incoherent vocals and slowly builds up into coherency for the first time on this whole journey. Clean vocals continue in the next song
Aorte which lays off the crushing sludge-riffs to begin with and you will immediately wonder if
Aorte was somehow a track on a
Cult Of Luna album as it emulates their sound perfectly. The album goes back to its less experimental sludge roots with the last song feeling a little lackluster compared to the last two you just heard.
Overall you are left with mixed feelings upon the first few listens.
Razoreater and
Aorte will appeal to most post-metal enthusiasts straight away and the tracks
Silver Needle. Golden Nail and
De Dodenakker are really great tracks for the sludge lovers.
