(written by Islander)
The melodic death metal band Carved Memories originated in Costa Rica but are now settled in Berlin, Germany. They released a self-titled EP seven years ago, and now have a debut album set for release on November 1st on Black Lion Records.
The album’s name is The Moirai, and its eight songs have a unifying theme:
The Moirai delves into the concept of absolute power, exploring the immense forces that dominate and control their realms. Each track reflects the overwhelming presence of a massive deity or emotion, personified as an unstoppable force reigning supreme. The lyrics narrate the influence and dominion of these mighty entities, portraying them in their full might — unchallenged and eternal. The themes center around the unyielding nature of these powers, representing a reign that cannot be defied.
In line with this conception, the album’s music delivers hard-charging intensity and often reaches heights of towering supremacy, but it creates other experiences as well — and you’ll have the chance to become immersed in all of them through our full album premiere today.
Carved Memories chose to open their album with “Cerberus“. Although it’s not one of the three songs released as a single or video in the run-up to the record’s release date, it functions quite well as an introduction to what’s coming, and as an example of the band’s melding of ferocity and melody, of sheer power and wrenching emotional catharsis, with much of that synthesis occurring on a vast scale.
Launched by a somber and somewhat foreboding piano melody, the song soon surges and soars, with drums punching hard, guitars viciously scything and vividly swirling, and a voice barbarically howling and screaming. The album features orchestration designed by Clemens “Ardek” Wijers from Carach Angren, and “Cerberus” brings that into play as well, adding to the track’s grandeur and power.
In its moods, the song channels harrowing peril, fear, and anguish with fiery intensity, an intensity fueled by the frightening explosiveness of the vocals, the incendiary brilliance of the swirling fretwork, and the majestic sweep of the symphonic horns and strings, which is both daunting and sorrowful.
The band follow that eye-opener of an album-opener with one of the pre-release singles, a song called “Bellow“, which was first presented through a lyric video. It features darting classical strings, rapidly writhing riffage, guitar-leads and soloing that themselves sound classically influenced, immense booming undercurrents, rapid-fire percussive blasting, and another strong dose of those shattering vocals.
Intricate and elegant, but also ferocious, “Bellow” reinforces the impressions created by “Cerberus“, that Carved Memories are devoted to pushing their music way over the top — in scale, in intensity, and in the elaborate nature of their instrumental layers and ornate musical filigrees.
In the songs to come, the band rarely descend from their extravagant musical summits, though they do vary the moods, with some songs more grim and apocalyptic, others more tormented and violent, and still others more stricken with sorrow and pain. They also vary the vocal elements, trading off savage growls and broiling screams, and bringing in synths that mimic celestial choral voices.
What they really don’t do very often is give listeners a chance to catch their breaths or stop their hearts from pounding and their muscles from twitching. Even the purely orchestral interlude, “The Sovereign“, climbs toward majestic heights, before the band launch head-long into the ravishing full-throttle storm of “Raven“, which was the subject of another pre-release video, one that gives fans a chance to see Carved Memories on stage.
Straight through to the closing title song, which ends with a classical piano melody that loops the album back around to how it begins, the band keep the scale of both their ambitions and their music way up on the mountaintop. Non-stop head-spinning and head-hammering exhilaration is the name of their game.
Thankfully, the album is produced with such clarity and separation (albeit without sacrificing power) that you can hear all of the many instrumental ingredients that collectively make all the songs so extravagant — which makes the music even more head-spinning.
And with that, we’ll leave you to experience The Moirai for yourselves, in full:
CARVED MEMORIES is:
KV: Vocals, Guitars
Raven: Vocals, Bass
Butcher: Drums
The stunning cover art for The Moirai was painted by Adam Burke (Nightjar Illustration). The album was recorded by KV at Hell’s Pit Studio. It was mixed and drums recorded by Marcos Monnerat at Stereorat Studio. It was mastered by Fredrik Nordström at Studio Fredman.
Black Lion will release the album on CD and digital formats, and you can pre-order and pre-save now:
PRE-ORDER/PRE-SAVE:
https://music.blacklion.nu/carvedmemories
https://carvedmemoriesblacklion.bandcamp.com/album/the-moirai
CARVED MEMORIES:
https://carvedmemoriesband.com
https://www.facebook.com/CarvedMemories
https://www.instagram.com/carved.memories