Few bands can boast the kind of feverish adulation that Belgian post metallers Amenra inspire. Across twenty years and six albums, named Mass I through VI respectively, they’ve cultivated an emotional, atmospheric style that draws on post hardcore, sludge and ambient as much as it does post metal. Now, with their seventh album, they’re breaking from tradition. Not only is this their first album to not carry the Mass moniker, instead carrying the name De Doorn (The Thorn) but it’s also the first where the lyrics are sung entirely in their native Flemish and it’s their first album with their new label, Relapse Records.
It’s a distinctly more experimental affair than before, too; another break with tradition, but one that doesn’t stray too far. There’s still plenty of crushing heaviness to be found and vocalist Colin H. van Eeckhout’s screams are that bit more feral, interspersed as they are with moments of poignancy and ambience. Opener ‘Ogentroost’ is initially soft, as synths swell through its opening minutes but moves into a churning, heaving riff replete with Colin’s vicious scream.
De Doorn feels more freeform than before, and this translates into the natural progression within songs where things evolve gradually rather than feeling forced. There’s an organic ebb and flow to the material; the heaviness of ‘Ogentroost’ is balanced by the following ambient and spoken word interlude, ‘De Dood In Bloei’ before the fury and yearning of ‘De Evenmens’ takes hold.
This newfound experimentalism doesn’t dampen the core of Amenra’s sound though; the monolithic compositions are very much still present. The aforementioned ‘De Evenmens’ is a towering, gut-wrenching emotional ride, Colin’s desolate howls punctuated by spoken word passages and crushing riffs and the cleanly sung vocal passages lend yet more emotional weight to an already intense experience.
The loud/quiet dynamic that has proved such fertile ground on past releases is once again explored to great effect. Though ‘De Evenmens’ mainly explores the louder, sludgier side of this, ‘Het Gloren’ opens with spoken word and acoustic guitar before once more plumbing the depths of despair with an intensity and urgency only Amenra can muster. De Doorn gradually builds throughout, with this ebb and flow of tides, until finally culminating in ‘Voor Immer’, a twelve minute opus that spends its first half moving through softer territory before erupting with tectonic guitars. It feels different this time though, like coming up for air after being held underwater for so long, thrashing and calling for help before washing away with cleanly picked guitar.
To be blunt, De Doorn is perhaps Amenra’s finest hour. It’s a triumph of emotive songwriting that unshackles itself from their previous sound in a way that retains much of it while still exploring new textures and soundscapes. Their sprawling compositions are given new life and feel ever closer to the spiritual ritual that is their live show, balancing raw outpourings of emotion with quiet introspection that are the calm before the purging storm. The result is nothing short of a monumental album that embodies all that Amenra is while taking bold new steps into what they will become.