As described by The Font of All Human Knowledge: “Homo homini lupus, or in its unabridged form Homo homini lupus est, is a Latin proverb meaning ‘A man is a wolf to another man,’ or more tersely ‘Man is wolf to man.’ It is used to refer to situations where a person has behaved comparably to a wolf. In this case, the wolf represents predatory, cruel, and generally inhuman qualities; in essence, the person is held to be uncivilized.”
The Italian black/death metal band Keres took that proverb as the name for their debut album which is due for release on February 23rd via Gruesome Records. It is, for them, a truth about the human condition that provokes disgust and rage. They define humanity as “the biggest plague on earth”:
“Over the centuries we killed each other for the most trivial reasons, hiding behind religion, political ideologies, false respectability and many other bullshit with the purpose of justifying what we have done and are still doing. But the truth is that our nature will always lead us to crave what we don’t have, bringing endless conflicts for this thirst of power, which will bring upon us our own demise. In the end, only ruins and dust of what we are will remain, this is our true legacy. We deserve extinction.”
Keres obviously don’t mince words. They don’t pull any punches in their music either, as you will discover for yourselves through our complete premiere stream of their new album today, on the eve of its release.
photos by Federica Vanzetta
There’s no mistaking the sheer fury that fuels Keres‘ music, which becomes abundantly apparent in the album’s opening track, “Exist for War“. The drums discharge ruinous assaults, like mechanized weaponry, punctuated by explosive detonations. The layered riffing roils like a vortex of fire and swarms in vicious frenzies. The vocals snarl with teeth bared, and roar and howl with eviscerating power and untamed ferocity.
But in that same song other qualities also become apparent. While the song is near-overpowering in its intensity, it’s also technically impressive and razor-sharp in its execution. Moreover, it’s a dynamic war-storm of many facets, threaded with strands of affecting melody that channel confusion and despair as well as blazing barbarity. The music also soars in daunting grandeur, and it also delivers concrete-fracturing grooves.
Thankfully, the production quality of the music provides clarity without detracting from its titanic, senses-consuming power, and that allows a detailed appreciation of the layered, channel-separated guitars and all their intricate vibrating maneuvers, as well as the fleet-fingered agility of the bassist.
That opening song is so jaw-dropping, so compelling of repeat listens, that it’s difficult to move on from it. But once you do, you’ll continue running a gauntlet of ravishing intensity. Yet Keres also prove themselves to be careful and judicious craftsmen, bringing new musical ingredients into play and providing variations in speed, intensity, and mood.
In “Immaculate Incarnation of Darkness“, for example, spit-fire soloing seizes attention, somber piano-like tones surface through the maelstrom, and suddenly the maelstrom vanishes and lonely guitars ring their grief. Elsewhere the soloing pours out misery and also weaves spells of dark magic, and melodies continue to arise (as in “Pale Horse of Extinction” and “Eradicate the Infected Seed“) that are saturated in sorrow, as if in recognition that we could be so much more than we are.
Indeed, the melodies are so vital to the album’s success that “blackened melodic death metal” wouldn’t be out of place as a genre descriptor. In their lyrics and in their music, Keres fashion themselves as bringers of fire and death, but in the melodies they bring more than that too.
Still, Keres return again and again to ruthlessly pulverizing the listener — the start-stop bouts of obliteration in “Oblivion” are a particularly striking example of that — and to erupt in electrifying frenzies of violent chaos (e.g., in the breathtaking onslaught of “Until Everything’s Burned“).
Through it all, the unchained intensity of the growling, snarling, and screaming vocals command attention, and the drummer demonstrates that not only is he capable of mimicking high-caliber weaponry going at smoking speeds, he’s also equally capable of shifting tempos and patterns with surgical precision.
Keres drew inspiration for this album in part from the writings of Thomas Hobbes, who himself quoted the maxim “Homo homini lupus” in his greatest work, Leviathan, where he detailed the manifold self-destructive weaknesses of humanity and famously described the life of man as “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” Not surprisingly, then, Keres‘ new album includes a song named “Leviathan“, even though the leviathan that is its focus is a hellish and indomitable beast.
That song is a ruthless punisher. Like “Oblivion” it discharges massive start-stop jolts, heavy and hard enough to loosen your teeth, but both the opening moments and the guitar motifs that swirl through the bone-smashing assaults channel distress and agony. The song is also another one that briefly quells the tumult to make way for snarled words and a somber arpeggio.
If you’re looking for just one song as a way of testing whether the album is to your taste, “Leviathan” would be an excellent choice, but really, any of them would do, because all of them are stupefyingly good, straight through to the closing song “Void and Silence“, which begins like a piece of exotic melancholy sorcery before Keres throw open the gates of Hell — and end at the funeral altar of hopelessness.
If you’ve been patient enough to get this far through all the words, here’s the payoff:
KERES IS:
ARES (vocals)
AZRAEL (guitar)
ASTAHROT (guitar)
HRYMR (bass)
NOTRHAKR (drums)
Homo Homini Lupus was recorded by Keres, and was mixed and mastered by the masterful Stefano Morabito at 16th Cellar Studio in Rome. The striking cover art, which vividly captures the meaning of the album’s title, was made by Cristian Giacomuzzi (Giako Tattoo).
The album is recommended for fans of such bands as Hate, Vader, Behemoth, Svart Crown, and Dark Funeral, and you can pre-order it now:
PRE-ORDER:
https://gruesomerecords.bandcamp.com/album/homo-homini-lupus-2024
KERES:
https://www.keres-band.com/
https://www.instagram.com/keres_official
https://www.facebook.com/keresband
https://keresofficialband.bandcamp.com/