Almost exactly one year ago the Portuguese label The Hills Are Dead Records released In The Soleness Of The Storm, the debut album by the Iranian band Bitter Wine. At that time, Bitter Wine was the solo project of Murray Arisch, which had its inception in 2021. Since the album’s release, the band has expanded with a full lineup that now includes guitarist Vahid Karimifard, bassist Amir Bonakdar, and drummer Hossein “Ermita” Zahedi.
And so begins a new chapter in the life of Bitter Wine, which has included them playing their first live show in Iran, with ambitions to play in other countries as well. To help remind people of the album and to help draw deserved attention to the band, today we’re premiering a lyric video (made by Mahyar Masoudi) for the song “The Lighting Stars“.
photo by by Hami Saremi
Musically, In The Soleness Of The Storm could be thought of as an homage to melodic death metal and melodic black metal from the ’90s, but with other roots in the ancient soils of the band’s homeland.
Lyrically, the album deals with anti-religious and anti-ideological themes, as well as nihilism, social issues, and depression. The subject matter of this song, “The Lighting Stars“, concerns the destructive effects of theological governments on society as well as the creation of mental illnesses because of them. Of course, living in Iran, Bitter Wine have greater first-hand experience with this phenomenon than most people now reading these words.
Apart from the furiously disgusted words, voiced in guttural denunciations of abyssal depth, which diminish into haunted gasps and explode into strangled screams, the lyric video provides the music of course, and there’s fury in it too, but also a feeling of severe loss, to the point of despair.
The song packs a visceral punch as it rhythmically rumbles and brutishly hammers, but it’s the harmonized melodic riffing and evocative arpeggios that really stand out. The whirring and slithering guitars pierce the mind and channel sorrow, capped by a wailing and soaring guitar solo that seems like the very manifestation of the lighting stars that religious dogma has snuffed out.
Moreover, the melodies (exotic to our Western ears) seem to link arms with old Persian traditions, and that makes the song stand out too.
In The Soleness of The Storm is available via the Bandcamp link below, and Bitter Wine can be followed on Facebook for more info about their activities. Along with the links, we’ve also included a full stream of the album below.
BANDCAMP:
https://thehillsaredead.bandcamp.com/album/in-the-soleness-of-the-storm
FACEBOOK:
https://www.facebook.com/bitterwinemusic