Amenra – ‘De Doorn’

How do you begin to review a band like Amenra? To talk about them in the usual terms of instrumentation and production, lyrics and arrangements; it just feels reductive, like trying to write a haiku about the Old Testament. The true Amenra experience is equal parts religious ritual and existential nightmare. The band have spent the last two decades honing a signature blend of post-metal and black metal that is utterly cataclysmic. They are as much an endurance test as they are a band, and ‘De Doorn’ is no exception. ‘Ogentroost’ opens the album with soft synths that start out warm and almost comforting, but with a menacing undercurrent that gradually takes over until a sparsely picked guitar part stalks its way in and melts into the existing foundation. A spoken word section, delivered lik...