Amenra: De Doorn

Belgian veteran Post-Metal band AMENRA have returned with their 7th full length album De Doorn. Having moved away from their 20 year run of albums titled Mass I - VI, AMENRA are going down a new path on Da Doorn to create a cathartic journey for listeners to process their darkness and bring them into the light through the shared experience.

Amenra have sought to create an incredibly personal and intimate album. Da Doorn is full of long, slow, intensity building atmosphere filled with a sense of longing and anguish but also with moments that feel like redemption or release. The sounds go from gentle tension to cavernous, cathedral-like atmospheres to explosive agonized screams of despair and pain. Da Doorn opens with “Ogentroost� which means something like ‘eye comfort' and relates to the look in the eyes of those who see someone in great pain or despair for the first time and how those sympathetic eyes are so important and comforting for the one in pain, in those dark moments. The music reflects this with its slow burning atmospheric build-up and then eventual explosion with singer Colin H. Van Eeckhout screaming in utter desperation while Caro Tanghe of Belgian band Oathbreakers sings soothingly above the chaos. For the first time in the band's career all the songs are sung in AMENRA’s native tongue of Flemish and through much of the album’s more gentle, introspective or confessional moments it’s in the form of spoken word which has an extremely intimate feel to it despite this writers lack of Flemish. “De Dond in Bloei� continues in the theme from the first song but offers the listener a form of rest before continuing on to “De Evenmens�, which is a band created word, meaning something like, ‘we are only human for a little while’. “Het Gloren�, meaning something like “the dawning� follows, this time tackling the idea of new beginnings and the almost religious concept of an ‘everlasting one’ although in this context that refers to pain. Again the music follows a similar pattern of slow builds and sudden turns as well as continued intimate storytelling. Finally the album concludes with “Voor Immer�, meaning ‘forever’ which deals with putting things to rest. For guitarist and songwriter Lennart Bossu, who also plays in Oathbreaker, this last track was the first song he wrote for the album and was the catalyst for the rest of the material. The music again here is slow burning, intimate and loaded with anguished chaos.

Da Doorn certainly isn’t for everyone; the music is extremely dark and haunting mixed in with chaotic oppression. For fans of the doomier and more conceptually emotional end of Metal, this album is sure to please. The sounds are hypnotic and obviously loaded with deep personal meaning and the Authenticity of emotion is on full display here. Da Doorn is a worthy addition to their catalogue and their long career.

AMENRA line-up:
Colin H. van Eeckhout -Lead Vocals
Mathieu Vandekeckhove -Guitar
Bjorn J. Lebon- Percussion
Lennart Bossu -Guitar
Tim De Gieter -Guitar
Caro Tanghe- Backup Vocals

Tracklisting:
1. Ogentroost
2. De Dond in Bloei
3. De Evenmens
4. Het Gloren
5. Voor Immer

Added: October 15th 2021
Reviewer: Benjamin Dudai
Score:
Related Link: Band Website
Hits: 606
Language: english

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