Amenra
Mass VI

Rings.
Colin takes off his dazzlingly white shirt. His skin is covered in tattoos, alchemical symbols, phrases with seemingly nonsensical meanings: he turns to place it on the ground, revealing the enormous inverted cross that adorns his back, from shoulders to pelvis, black as the hymns he would soon raise to the sky.
He has scars along his arms, there are small holes between his ribs.
He turns again, eyes closed and arms wide open: hooded men slip behind him, almost as if born from his shadow, dragging ropes, rings, and hooks. One by one, they thread the rings through the holes on his arms and back: each ring matches a hook, each hook is attached to a rope, and each rope is raised above his head, tied to pulleys that until now had remained hidden, shrouded in darkness.
Colin still hasn’t opened his eyes, the music playing in his head is majestic and compelling, the trance state that envelops him allows him to hear nothing but those notes. He didn’t feel the cold metal of the rings piercing his flesh, but he knows that each corresponds to a memory, an emotion, a challenge to himself or others. One is connected with the heart, one with the mind, one with breath, one with blood, one with the eyes, one with dreams, one with nightmares. There’s a ring for anger, one for defeat, one for love, and one for loss. The heart ring is perfectly circular, with no breaks like the others, and it is unknown how it was hooked: circular, unbroken, like life and death in an eternal round.
The intensity of the music rises, the ropes tighten, his feet slowly lift off the ground, his crucifixion is taking shape. It is no religious metaphor, it is the most earthly and material existence possible: in that body slowly being hoisted upward converge all the fears, anxieties, and sufferings of each of us. There he is, high above, Colin, at the peak of his ascent and his music, unchallenged sovereign with a crown of thorns reminiscent of Cash, watching over his "solitary reign" decadent and bleeding.
Whoever is passionate about post-metal sounds (to simplify things, but I could also talk about hardcore, doom, crust, sludge...) will surely know Amenra. The band, hailing from Flanders, has made a name for itself over the years with a series of works (EPs, LPs, splits, live performances) of undeniable value, in which the musical form of our own has gradually been shaped. Following the duo "Mass IIII" and "Mass V" (for me almost a single work), this "Mass VI" immediately stands out as, in all likelihood, their best-achieved work. In the six tracks that make up the album, there is a perfect balance between pain, suffering, madness, and melancholy, which musically translate into furious and mournful screams, warm and enveloping clean vocals, robust and solid guitars, and a rhythm section that supports everything with influences, in my opinion, borrowed from the post-rock and wave world. Perhaps a bit too short (or maybe it's just me perceiving it that way, given the emotional involvement it causes me each time), "Mass VI" does not make any missteps but advances, mournfully, shattering the defenses of our hearts with heavyweight tracks like "Solitary Reign", among the most beautiful ever written by Amenra.
It is a step forward from their previous discography, there is evolution hidden in these tracks, and as far as I'm concerned, it is undoubtedly one of the top albums of 2017.