The exhausting and enlightening nature of Amenra emerged from the shadows of Belgium during the darkest days of 1999. The release of Mass V sees the band’s focus on the inherent and desolate beauty that’s found in life imbued with a painful ambience not often found within their doomed sludge style.
The Church Of Ra (as the collective are wont to call the ritualistic nature of the Amenra experience) delve into the long-hidden recesses of the psyche and pull from its rotten core the words of hope and spirituality that make up Mass V and its disarming rhythmic undertones.
Dearborn And Buried begins this journey into the landscape of the mind with howls of pain and moments of stark reality, and Nowena I 9.10 closes it on a similarly bittersweet note. Using pure, clean vocals on this track brings an aching honesty to Mass V and it’s in the clashing of tender and serene passages with intense screams and walls of noise that Amenra touch upon the actuality of life. It will hurt and terrify, but there can be a salvation.
