Vicious psych trio, Kurokuma brought a fresh heaviness to the extreme music scene in 2022 with their debut album, ‘Born of Obsidian’. In August the genre-mashing threesome will return with their new record, ‘Of Amber and Sand’.
But it’s not sludge, it’s not doom, it’s not death metal. It’s Kurokuma.
While their Sanford Parker-recorded debut, ‘Born of Obsidian’ dug deep into the ancient history of Mesoamerican civilisations, ‘Of Amber and Sand’ is based on the colossal concept of time, each track dealing with a different facet of temporality and eternity, probing its significance to creation, civilisation and the human experience.
Musically, the band have drawn influence from the instruments, melodies and rhythms of the Middle East/Balkans on this release. Guitarist and vocalist, Jake Mazlum explains:
“In terms of my own relationship with the new musical elements, it’s complicated. I’m an Orthodox Christian from the Muslim world, an immigrant to the UK, and a more recent immigrant to the Balkans, where ironically I feel like I fit in culturally more than anywhere else. Much of my family is ethnically Armenian but now resides in Turkey, where I spent the first few years of my life there.
My relationship with these ‘ethnic’ musical styles is a mix of appreciation for what they are, a familiarity due to their imposition in my life in various ways, and a very conscious detachment from the cultures, places and values that - like all art - deeply informs them.“
‘I Am Forever’ is the first single to be shared from the album with drummer Joe Allen stating, “this track is a mantra on meditation that opens up this concept album on time. We challenged ourselves to write something that worked even with repeated lyrical phrases, so it truly felt like a mantra. Jake had been listening to a lot of Nailbomb and Korn for the riffs, and then our mate, Babak stepped up with a blazing baglama solo. It starts off the album with a bang."
Comentários