Årabrot – Solar Anus
Fysisk Format
Solar Anus, the fifth album by necromantic Norwegians Årabrot, is like the film Valhalla Rising come to life. Danish journeyman director Nicolas Winding Refn completed something of berserk, brilliant uniqueness in his 2009 film that eschews car chases and über-constipated looking gangsters for a more contemplative (if no less violent) tale set in Norway 1,000 years ago.
The movie, which features an avant metal soundtrack, is about a tattooed beast of a one-eyed man who is kept prisoner for the purposes of organised fighting matches. He escapes and decides to leave Norway with Christian converts who are heading to the Holy Lands to take part in the Crusades, but after getting lost in a hellish red fog, lands somewhere altogether more strange.
This album is also a stark mix of introspective, trance-like repetition punctuated with implacable bursts of violence. Philosophically it looks beyond the simplistic black-and-white view of Norway’s pre-Christian mythology espoused by many of the country’s second-wave black metal groups to an interpretation of pagan lore that hasn’t been debased for reasons of morally bankrupt and cowardly nationalism.
Årabrot’s interest in mixing high and low culture (philosophy and noise rock) is reflected by the album title, which refers to George Bataille’s concept of man being a mix of both God and animal. Musically they’ve moved away from the relatively restrained Revenge in 2010 and into a new realm of sonic fury, only previously heralded by little-known 12” track, ‘I Rove’.
The band have returned to using Steve Albini as recorder and mixer, this time getting the apocalyptic results that 2009’s The Brother Seed didn’t quite deliver. Kjetil Nernes, on guitar and vocals, gives voice to a phalanx of demons, priests and mad soothsayers while sticksman Vidar Evensen explodes across the skins. It’s been a while coming, but Årabrot have finally earned and cemented their reputation as one of Europe’s best heavy rock bands. John Doran
