Ehnahre’s “'Old Earth” album is about 38 minutes long and is divided into four chapters whose development is beautifully described in the extensive release notes on the label’s pages.
Get a glipse of how this new twisted adventure, or nightmare, starts:
“It begins with distant rustling sounds creep out of a dank underground space, as the dusty warbling strains of an old 78 rpm record drift through, introducing 'Old Earth' with an eerie haze of slightly corroded, somewhat hallucinatory sound. As a terrifying chorus of operatic female howls suddenly waft out of cracks in the floor, the guitars finally appear, all alone and slowly weaving an ominous dissonant melody that takes over the piece as the listener is propelled further into Ehnahre's twisted soundscape. It's not long before the band tumbles into their trademark atonal death-doom, that spidery fractured guitar suddenly swelling into a monstrous clanging anti-riff while withered, ragged screams and bizarre mewling join in, and the rhythm section erupts into brief blasts of chaotic slow-motion heaviness and free-jazz inspired drumming.”
But after the hallucinatory and, well, rather sober, tame sounds occupying most of the first “chapter”, Ehnahre's poisonous sound explodes in its distressing, mind-melting tentacular aspects. There surges of warped noisy death metal, described as a crossbreed between Disembowelment and Obscura-era Gorguts, gurgle side by side with shadowy and even delicate drony melodies, menacing dissonant and martial/industrial death-doom charges as well as creepy and alienating free jazz escapes. You are continuously hauled in and out from emotional and painful soundscapes throughout the album. The awakening from the nightmare takes place at the end of the fourth “chapter” in the same sober way it started, i.e. by mean of a fairly abstract, slowly plodding, solitary dull dissonant sound, the only thing surviving from the decomposition of a final breathtaking wave of bone-crushing death metal surge. As it is fairly typical in this band, metal instruments and tortured chanting are employed together with keyboard and atypical instruments like double-bass and trumpets. The latter are taken care of by guest musicians Greg Kelley (Heathen Shame) and Forbes Graham (Kayo Dot) during the most spellbinding incursions into avant-jazz fusion and shadowy atmospherics.
“As terrifying as it is haunting, 'Old Earth' is another intensely challenging and completely unique offering from Ehnahre, who still sound like nothing else in the metal/avant underground. It has some of the most bleakly beautiful, burnt-out moments the band has brought us so far, and those jazz-influenced passages in the middle of the album are pretty goddamn stunning. Might be difficult listening for some, but Ehnahre's otherworldly heaviness is immensely rewarding for the adventurous listener.” (release notes) As noted above, the CD edition of 'Old Earth' comes in a full color digipack, as well as digital release, on September 10th, 2012 via Crucial Blast. Those who are teased by curiosity can, however, stream ‘Old Earth’ in its entirety on Crucial Blast’s Bandcamp page.
Words by Marilena Moroni
Ehnahre - Crucial Blast | Bandcamp
Ehnahre | Official Website
Ehnahre | Facebook
Crucial Blast | Official Website
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