With their last release being in 1987, Amebix reformed in 2008 and have delivered what many have long desired: a full album of new material. Expectations are, of course, high, and Sonic Mass faces the challenge of living up to Amebix's near-mythical status. Usually, that first album after a band's reformation following an extensive hiatus is greeted with mixed responses, the worst of them deriding the product as a mediocre rehash of their former glory only for their follow-up release to be embraced as something that is wholly original and "authentically" theirs, as if the first was just a warm up. Fortunately, Amebix have saved us from the horror of waiting for that next album and delivered a work that is unquestionably magnificent. Sonic Mass is not just a collection of songs, it's a whole, a unit that is at its best when granted the time to listen to it front to back, which it does undoubtedly deserve. To comment on each track as an individual entity would undermine the purpose of the album, suffice it to say that Amebix's canvas is as broad as it is deep, emotionally, spiritually, artistically. The poetic language laced with punk subversion melds with the Celtic-sounding acoustic strums and the dark and heavy riffs and vast landscapes and dense, almost tangible atmospheres. For a three piece, Amebix have the sound of a mighty army battling despair with hope, ignorance with enlightenment, and perennial war with an enduring clarity. Sonic Mass is sheer brilliance. Earthy, ethereal, and gritty. Get it now.
Click here to watch the Knights of the Black Sun video
Track Listing:
- Days
- Shield Wall
- The Messenger
- God of the Grain
- Visitation
- Sonic Mass pt1
- Sonic Mass pt2
- Here Comes The Wolf
- The One
- Knights of the Sun
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