We have paid a lot of attention here over the last six months to the Portuguese band Carma and their second album Ossadas, which was released in early March by Monumental Rex. If you haven’t heard it, you really should find the time to go to this location and do that. We have learned, however, that there are members of Carma, as well as the Portuguese band Everto Signum, that have worked together in another musical entity named Lacrau that will also release an album this year — their full-length debut.
The name of that album is Axioma, and the same Monumental Rex will release it on September 22nd. To help spread the word, we’re premiering one of its emotionally powerful tracks today.
The album is a conceptual work that grapples with an ages-old phenomenon that concerns the burdens of aging, and it’s described in these words:
Formed in the mountainous region of Serra da Estrela, Portugal, Lacrau introduces Axioma – a conceptual work that combines Depressive, Black and Doom Metal elements to tell a story inspired by the legendary Scandinavian senicide ritual. It is told that the practice consisted in elderly people throwing themselves, or being thrown, from precipices after becoming unable to take care of themselves or perform everyday tasks. Written in Portuguese, the lyrical narrative describes the ritual from different angles: the realization of the burden, the journey to the cliff, the induced feelings and the acceptance of the fate.
The album’s opening track “PREMISSA” is an instrumental piece, but it isn’t the kind of brief (and often forgettable) “intro” track that opens many albums. Instead, it’s a five-minute experience that’s vital in setting the scene for the harrowing journey to come.
The guitars slowly ring and simultaneously abrade, burrowing into the listener’s head as their refrain repeats, creating a mood that’s dismal and dismayed, confused and fearful. The drums thump like the cadence of a staggering march, and then hammer out an urgent pulse as the guitar writhes and warps. When the drums fall silent, the music sounds like pleading, but the drums won’t be silenced for long — the march is inexorable.
The song “DOENÇA” follows “PREMISSA“. Its lyrics poetically describe the degradation and exhaustion of the body as it is ravaged by time and disease, and becomes a burden to descendants. And then comes the song we’re presenting today — “DECLINIO” — in which the words describe that burden in harrowing terms as the aged, their memories and mental capacities fading, are carried along a steep path to the ending time and place.
In the music, Lacrau still make use of a guitar tone that straddles a line between clarity and corrosiveness, between chimes and heavy-grit sandpaper, but it won’t take long to realize the importance of the bass in its intriguing interplay with the guitars or the primal propulsive power of the drums. The melody is grim, as you might expect from the song’s subject matter, and the screaming vocals themselves scar the senses with their intensity.
The intensity of the song as a whole rises, the rhythm section becoming more vigorous and the riffing bathing the senses in a dense, roiling whirlpool of anguished sound. The music has powerful head-moving hooks, and unexpectedly has the power to mesmerize notwithstanding its depressive mood, especially as the lead guitar ascends in prominence, but there’s no mistaking the feelings of torment and grief that it carries.
Near the end the emotional intensity boils over, the drums blasting away, the bass throbbing in a fever, the guitars seeming to wail, a heart that’s broken and beseeching.
For Axioma, the music and lyrics written by Nekruss and Gabriel; the vocals, bass, and adufe were performed by Nekruss; the guitars were performed by Nekruss and session musician Æminus; and the drums were performed by Nikola Dušmanić (session).
Axioma was recorded and produced by Lacrau independently, and mixed by Nekruss. The abstract and symbolic illustrations, hand-drawn by Gabriel of Lacrau, complement the story, while the design and layout tasks were carried out by Infected Minds.
Monumental Rex will release Axioma on CD digipack format, as well as digitally. In addition, it is offering two t-shirt designs and bundles of those with the physical CD edition. Pre-orders can be placed now via the link below, and we’re also including other links through which you can follow the progress toward the album’s release in September.
PRE-ORDER:
https://lacraubm.bandcamp.com/album/axioma
MORE INFO:
https://www.facebook.com/lacrau.bm
https://www.facebook.com/monumental.rex