(written by Islander)
The last time I attempted to find words for the music of Auriferous Flame I deployed adjectives such as “dire and deleterious,” “hypnotic” and “mystifying,” “deranged and dervish-like,” “molten” and “exotic.” The occasion then was an album named The Great Mist Within, released by True Cult Records in the summer of 2022. Now we have a new occasion because of a new album by this Greek black metal entity, which is one of the several guises assumed by the masterful Ayloss (with Spectral Lore being the best-known of those).
The new album, The Insurrectionists And The Caretakers, will be released tomorrow by the same True Cult Records. It is three songs long, and its overarching subject is revolution.
It’s not uncommon to find bands whose lyricist is not one of the people who wrote the music, and so the inspiration for the words may have been different from whatever thoughts or emotions inspired the music. In the case of a one-person band like Auriferous Flame, of course there’s no separation.
Still, even in solo projects like this one the music might come first, with the words conceived as an afterthought. However, it seems quite clear that’s not what happened here. The connection between the lyrical themes and the music is just too powerful to permit any other conclusion.
As noted, all three songs are narratives and philosophies about revolution, but they’re not utopian tales of heroic glory. Lyrically, they recognize the tragedies that resistance to tyranny can bring. They also recognize that revolutions may depend on the courage of people only doing what they can to push back against fascism — small and persistent acts of care and resistance despite the oppressiveness of fear. And they urgently and passionately remind us that when all release their voices, it can become the voice of a storm that has tremendous power.
Each of those last three sentences can be considered a rude summing up of the main themes of the three songs, one by one, but the lyrics of all three songs encompass all those concepts, with different degrees of emphasis, and they do it eloquently.
The first song, “The Insurrectionists“, is clearly the album’s raison d’etre. It’s nearly 16 minutes long. It’s that harrowing tale of tragedy summarized above, a narrative of a charismatic and courageous figure bent on taking action, drawing others to her side, bent on vengeance and turning the spark of an idea into action – but undone by a single mistake. Rather than sacrifice her comrades in what she realizes is a hopeless cause, she goes on by herself… to her death… with a bloodied note left behind: “At least I have revolted”.
Over those nearly 16 minutes the music powerfully captures those feelings of fury and fire, of secret planning and dreadful realization, and of self-sacrifice. It does that with thunderous drums, brazen thrashing riffs, vibrantly spiraling leads, furious howls, and scorching screams, as well as fanfare-like heavy metal chords and convulsions of blasting drums and incendiary guitar paroxysms.
It also does that with solemn pronouncements and eerily exotic musical swirls, stalking cadences, grim dragging chords, quivering arpeggios of misery, and unhinged shrieks of despair. The music also becomes hallucinatory, and its unsettling swaths of dissonance and strangely chiming tones create a deepening unease, even with a bass warmly musing below.
Yet the music also continues to rage and fight, indulging in bouts of wild guitar-delirium, full-on percussive riots, and thoroughly maniacal vocals, reaching new heights of racing instrumental spectacle and vocal cacophony.
Near the end, a guitar wails in grief, but the finale is a vibrant acoustic-guitar instrumental, a fervent folkloric dance which seems to foretell that the fires still burn.
The second song, “The Caretakers“, lyrically fashions an aging protagonist who is fearful about speaking his truths out loud, “Against the face of an authority that can wipe you out / The moment it decides so.” But the protagonist nonetheless is determined to fight in the ways he can, and to encourage others to do the same, hopeful that “the sprouts of resistance” will grow:
We will take care of each other and those in need
We will build roads of understanding and empowerment
Between all trampled by the black boot
Of fascism
Here, the music is immediately head-spinning, immediately fraught. Even with its opening spoken-word wisdom, the music almost drowns them out with a deluge of increasing frenzy and fear. The riffing also frantically writhes and jolts, exotic and exhilarating in its manifestations (again backed by a very nimble and noticeable bass and fast-changing drum-work, and fronted by fanatical vocal intensity).
The layered guitar performances are incredibly intricate and technically jaw-dropping, wild and chaotic (just like the vocals), though Ayloss also adds mysterious ambient layers and fervent singing, elevating the music to glory.
The final song is “Oration to The Storm“. And here, the words exhort oppressed people to raise their voices, to speak with might, to make a storm of power….
All of the songs have melodically exotic, folkloric, and even eldritch aspects, and you can detect some of those at the outset of this one — but it soon dials up into another high-powered head-spinning carnival of sound, indeed dervish-like and rampantly ecstatic, so much so that it takes your breath away.
The song gradually fades … but doesn’t end. Instead it dramatically changes, giving way to soft, glittering tones and shimmering mists. It sounds inviting and mystical… but thunder also crashes, the storm coming….
This isn’t an easy album to sum up, but if forced to do so I’d offer this: It’s explosive in it passion and storming in its black/thrashing intensity, but also remarkably elaborate, technically eye-popping, and at times surprisingly atmospheric (and even haunting). It also finds ways of calling back to more ancient days, as if reminders that resistance has been a vital feature of human history just as long as tyrants have.
The Insurrectionists And The Caretakers was recorded and mixed by Ayloss in his Stellar Auditorium studio, and it was mastered by Nidstag Studios, with cover art by Gilded Panoply (for the third consecutive album). It will be released by True Cult Records on November 8th.
“Auriferous Flame stands firmly against fascism and its permutations, including NSBM, in the metal scene.”
PRE-ORDER:
https://truecultrecords.bandcamp.com/album/the-insurrectionists-and-the-caretakers
AURIFEROUS FLAME:
https://www.facebook.com/Auriferousflame
https://www.facebook.com/truecultrecords