Logo

Suggestions

  • Latest
  • New Music
  • News Stories
  • Interviews
  • Exclusive Streams
  • Music Videos
  • Live Videos
  • Tours
  • Festivals
  • Latest
  • New Music
  • News Stories
  • Interviews
  • Exclusive Streams
  • Music Videos
  • Live Videos
  • Tours
  • Festivals

Logo

Suggestions

  • Latest
  • New Music
  • News Stories
  • Interviews
  • Exclusive Streams
  • Music Videos
  • Live Videos
  • Tours
  • Festivals
AMENRA by Stephan Vanfleteren
New Music

AMENRA: Mass VI record streaming in full!

October 16, 2017
3 mins read

Post metal maestros AMENRA are streaming their phenomenal new album Mass VI in full through a worldwide exclusive at The Independent ahead of release this Friday through Neurot Recordings.

As always with AMENRA, this art has come directly from the souls of the musicians involved. They can establish connections with their listeners more profound than almost any other band because they are direct heart to heart connections. In an early stream via the Independent, Colin H. Van Eeckhout reveals in beautiful detail where the spirit of their Masses comes from, tracing an arc from their very first, to their latest Mass VI. Read Colin’s profound prose alongside the stream of the album.

Mass VI will arrive on Friday, October 20th through Neurot Recordings. The European version has a different mix and master, as well as different artwork and design than the US version, mixed and mastered by Jack Shirley (Deafheaven, Oathbreaker) at the Atomic Garden, San Francisco. The deluxe edition 2xLP 45rpm 180-gram album is available in different limited colors. The band will be selling a special edition at their now sold-out release show in Brussels with screenprinted art.

Preorders for Mass VI are now live in the US through Neurot Recordings and via Consouling Sounds in Europe.

Following their North American summer tour with Converge and headlining labelmates Neurosis, AMENRA continues to book new performances in support of the new album.

10/28/2017 De Kreun – Kortrijk, BE [SOLD OUT]
10/31/2017 Ancienne Belgique – Brussels, BE * release show [SOLD OUT]
11/07/2017 Werk2 – Leipzig, DE
11/08/2017 Scene – Vienna, AU
11/09/2017 La Fabrika – Praha CZ
11/17/2011 CC Strombeek – Grimbergen BE (acoustic)
12/01/2017 De Leest – Izegem, BE (acoustic)
1/13/2018 Gaité Lyrique – Paris, FR
1/19/2018 Stevenskerk – Nijmegen NL
1/20/2018 Doornroosje – Nijmegen NL

Contrasts have always been deep, and at the very heart of AMENRA’s music, ever since they started uttering their Prayers And Holding Their Masses almost eighteen years ago. Tormented darkness has always coexisted alongside luminous beauty, thunderous impacts instantly followed by frail, delicate subtleties. Songs that seem to engulf everyone in the world at once suddenly feel like they are being whispered to you inside the isolation of your solitary womb.

Mass VI is here, and more than any other album in AMENRA’s past, it highlights those contrasts in a deeply affecting way. The eerie quietness of the first couple of minutes of “Children Of The Eye” announces the coming storm, and the nine explosive, cathartic minutes of this opening song hold in themselves all the strikingly disparate emotions that we have come to expect from AMENRA. Colossal riffs shake the very foundations of our being while singer Colin H. Van Eeckhout shrieks so agonizingly that we can almost picture him on stage, clawing at himself, back turned to us, underneath that one spotlight, feelings laid bare for all to see but at the same time locked in himself, profoundly alone. “I cast no shadow, light is too profound,” he spits out. When it’s almost too much to bear, there is a crack of light, the sonic rage subsides briefly, the guitars are not on fire for a few seconds, and Colin sings to us as in a lullaby, as he has done lately with his own solo project, CHVE, “one tear at a time,” as he whispers softly. The delivery is entirely different, but the intensity is the same, the song continues its uninterrupted path until everything catches fire once more. Nothing but the sparse, spoken seconds of “Edelkroone” could have followed this, a few seconds of respite before the band starts to carve yet another gash in our heart with “Plus Pres De Toi.” Three opening songs, three different moods, three languages – English, Flemish and French – but the impact is the same, tremendous. And all of this is just the beginning. Mass VI is an emotional rollercoaster until its very last second, until “Diaken” is abruptly ended at its very climax, as the last breath of an expiring life. Every band member is seemingly being stretched to their physical limits throughout. Colin puts in the performance of a lifetime, but he is inextricably intertwined to the guitarwork of Mathieu J. Vandekerckhove and Lennart Bossu can express unimaginable weight, both physical and spiritual, as well as weaving melodies of the utmost delicacy, while the rhythm section of Levy Seynaeve and Bjorn J. Lebon can either rumble like a consuming thunderstorm or retreat to the shadows with the same flowing spontaneity as the atmosphere dictates.

It’s difficult to think of a better person to capture this sonic enormity than Billy Anderson. The legendary American producer was already the chosen one for AMENRA’s Mass V, and between Neurosis’ Through Silver In Blood, Sleep’s Dopesmoker, Eyehategod’s Dopesick, Cathedral’s Endtyme or Brutal Truth’s Sounds Of The Animal Kingdom, among many, many others, he’s been a decisive element in the building of many a true classic. Mass VI was recorded in the Belgian Ardennes, a region of thick forests in the southeast end of the country, where the band was snowed in for a week. The album reflects these times. (words by José Carlos Santos)

Share this
  • Facebook
  • Messenger
  • Twitter
  • Whatsapp
  • Reddit
  • Email

Tags:

  • amenra
  • ConSouling Sounds
  • doom metal
  • post hardcore
  • post metal
  • post rock
  • rise above dead
  • sludge
  • sludge metal

Karol Kamiński

DIY rock music enthusiast and web-zine publisher from Warsaw, Poland. Supporting DIY ethics, local artists and promoting hardcore punk, rock, post rock and alternative music of all kinds via IDIOTEQ online channels.
Contact via www.idioteq.com@gmail.com

You might be interested in

SEEYOUSPACECOWBOY by Joe Calixto.jpg

IN SHORTS #59 📢 end-of-the week Punk/Hardcore/Metal news wrap-up (January 21-26)

INTEGRITY video

IN SHORTS #10 📢 early Sept. News Roundup feat. loads of new records, incl. BURN, LØVTE, INTEGRITY, TOUCHE AMORE, HÜSKER DÜ and more

You might be interested in

Science Man by Karalyn Hope
May 19, 2025

SCIENCE MAN’s “Monarch Joy” is out this week, final single “Animals” streaming, exclusive track by track is here

The Carolyn
May 16, 2025

Emotive punk rockers THE CAROLYN mark their first Canadian show with “Nosebleeds,” a song about cycles we struggle to break

LLEWELYN
May 8, 2025

LLEWELYN’s “Borrowed Bones” puts fresh teeth on the old wound

Blood Estate
May 8, 2025

BLOOD ESTATE returns with ‘Scream’, a simple beauty that hides something darker underneath

HIGH WATER!
Previous Story

IN SHORTS #15 📢 Mid October Weekly News Roundup, feat. Punk Rock Halloween, new music from PENNYWISE, TRANSPLANTS, and loads of straight-up DIY acts worth a check!

MILKILO!
Next Story

“VODA” – French instrumental noise rock drum & bass duo MILKILO premiere new track!

Latest

Science Man by Karalyn Hope

SCIENCE MAN’s “Monarch Joy” is out this week, final single “Animals” streaming, exclusive track by track is here

The Carolyn

Emotive punk rockers THE CAROLYN mark their first Canadian show with “Nosebleeds,” a song about cycles we struggle to break

Operation Ivy

OPERATION IVY’s “Hectic” finally gets its first official cassette release via Tapehead City and Hellcat Records

Black Autumn

BLACK AUTUMN looks back on 30 years of solitude, tape hiss, and evolving isolationist black metal

Sex Scenes

SEX SCENES capture exhaustion, frustration, and catharsis on their new LP “Everything Makes Me Sick”

PLEASE CONSIDER DONATING TO IDIOTEQ

As an independent magazine IDIOTEQ supports DIY ethics and local artists of all kinds. With no-ads policy and mission to give independent artists space they deserve, IDIOTEQ is a place to get inspired, learn more about lesser known artists and their perspective. Reporting on DIY music is our priority.

DONATE via PayPal or SUPPORT via Patreon

IDIOTEQ (pronounce “idiotec”) is a phonetic transcription of the word Idioteque – the act of suddenly going into a crazy, seizure like state. A vision of a society, where people are increasingly more obsessed with pointless technology, selfishness and mindless entertainment than life itself.
  • Latest
  • New Music
  • News Stories
  • Interviews
  • Exclusive Streams
  • Music Videos
  • Live Videos
  • Tours
  • Festivals