There’s something in the air around Utrecht in the Netherlands. It has spawned Laster, Verval, Nusquama and now Grey Aura. Active since 2010, “Zwart Vierkant” (Black Square) is the atmospheric black metal band’s second album following the snappily titled 2014 release “Waerachtighe Beschryvinghe Van Drie Seylagien, Ter Wereit Noyt Soo Vreemt Ghehoort”. This album is based on a novel by one of the band members about a 20th century painter who becomes obsessed with Russian art and goes on a journey of discovery.
Yes, it’s black metal but of the most psychologically twisted kind if “Maria Segovia” is anything to go by. There’s a strong theatrical element. It’s also avant-garde with trumpet and tuba like sounds, not forgetting a bit of Spanish guitar, to reinforce the sense of torture brought on by the black metal and the agonised story teller. This whirlwind is followed by “Rookslierten, Flessen” (Wisps of Smoke, Bottles) which is at the dark industrial end of the musical scale. The vocalist narrates grimly as the clouds thicken. Sirens rail. It’s chaos. Your worst nightmare is alive. It slows down to a funereal crawl and ends in a sinister way with some black oom-pah-pah. Very Dutch. “Het Schuimspoor Van De Ramp” (something like “The Spray of Disaster”). Distorted, creepy nastiness is how I’d describe its ambiance. The music is intense as you might expect and Grey Aura are not sparing on the sound effects or the range of atmospheres. Here, appropriately, is a concealed guitar-rendered passage of Russian style folk. It was hard to tell what was coming next but all the more intriguing for it. By “El Greco in Toledo” the vocalist is infected with warped sounds. But as he shouts painfully, the world around him is full of stormy, turbulent clouds. Our narrator must understandably be on the point of breakdown with this lot going on around him.
Midway there’s break and a shift towards a passion-filled Spanish narration and a further shift to a melancholic trumpet-infused funeral scene, all couched in the customary wall of noise. It’s very creative and utterly baffling. “Parijs Is Een Portaal” (Paris is a Portal) starts in equally mystifying fashion. After the initial sound of the singer hailing the mountains, the song takes on the element of mellow, night time jazz. This is all like musical gymnastics. It’s mental but I have to say it’s very good. Even the jazz has to be accompanied by twisted, disturbing elements. More conventional black metal fare follows. The hard-hitting, screaming and blackest De “Onnoemelijke Verleidelijkheid Van De Bezwijkende Deugd” (The Untold Seductiveness of Falling Virtue) pulls no punches, while infecting our mind with its inherent insanity and nightmarishness, as haunting tones spread themselves across a cold guitar line. The start of “Sierlijke Schaduwmond” (literally Grateful Shadow Month) actually reminded me of Opeth before becoming darker with spooky diction and explosive warped black metal. I haven’t used the word epic previously as I’d been trying to get to grips with it, but it is that. What dominates for me is the theatre with the dark spoken passages, the shocks like things appearing suddenly through walls and scaring you, and the twisted frenetic intensity all adding up to a massive soundscape. That spoken passage is accompanied by a quiet jazz line to throw us still further. The sound and the tempo pick up, before exploding one last time in a violent storm and fading away. Actually, it all adds up to madness and a bloody good album.
I wrote at the top what this is about, and I guess what we’re witnessing here is the vivid and tortured mind of the artist. Blow your mind with it. “Zwart Vierkant” certainly stirred my juices. This band doesn’t do boundaries. This is a work of extreme music and extreme imagination, It’s an aural kaleidoscope. Grey Aura have released another cracker from the musical and artistic hotspot of Utrecht.
(9/10 Andrew Doherty)
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