Amenra and Knockdown…

I first heard the Belgian band Amenra a few years ago from their debut recorded output, "Mass I". Since that time I've missed "Mass II" and a few other split or EP releases, but "Mass III", their latest output recently issued on CD by Hypertension Records, is certainly a much stronger effort than their debut—which was already a promising example of the band's atmospheric poundings of Neurosis/Isis-esque material, it simply suffered rather drastically from an inefficient recording. Well thankfully that's not an issue here at all, as the production boasts significantly more density and a nice, warm mix that really benefits the moody ebbs and flows of the material—where the average running time is about seven minutes per piece. It's just a great sounding effort all around, with excellent artwork as well, as visual accompaniment seems to be quite important to both the band and the folks at Hypertension.

For the most part Amenra generally sticks with midpaced bashings that place lots of emphasis on surging rhythms and a strong sense of flow that builds riffs up and breaks them back down as things move along—shifting through softer, more serene passages as well as numerous forms of harsher and more aggressive attacks. I love how the fierce shouting is mixed deep in against the music, too. Sure, it's not really the most original thing in the world, but the band clearly has a distinct vision, and they've grown into communicating it quite expertly in my opinion.

Amenra "The pain it is shapeless. We are your shapeless pain."

The disc also contains two tracks from "Mass II", which fit in fairly well against the new songs in terms of recording values—they're just a little more dissonant at times. "Mass II" was a one-sided LP, so I'm not sure if these two cuts represent the entirety of that release or not since I've never seen it for myself, but they bring the total count for the CD pressing of "Mass III" to six tracks at more than 45 minutes. I'm not sure if Hypertension has any distribution in the US or not, but I haven't seen much of their material over here yet. I'm not sure why, though. It's all gorgeous, and let's face it: They pressed up a fucking Starkweather double-LP (which is, unsurprisingly, available from Deathwish Inc. in limited quantity)! If you like what you hear you can order this disc straight from the label for now, and they're all very great and trustworthy people, so never fear:

@ Hypertension Records