“I cannot get behind the idea of black metal being hateful; for me, love is always the driving force behind creating something, and I choose to see my music as a celebration of love, life and light.”
Amidst a world in which hatred is ingrained into every corner of our lives, packed onto the screens we cherish and feed with our incomes, we often tire. Sometimes we need a release, a break, in order to keep going, and Anthropos, the culmination of a trilogy of releases from one-man blackened drone unit Aeons And Monuments is such a release.
Simultaneously soothing and intricate, the EP’s sketches – themselves weathered by the project’s mountainous origins, and a deep appreciation for the magickal essence of the nature of the cosmos – provide a calming synergy of richly layered ambience and minutely crafted audial stimulation, resulting in a powerful, rewarding listen. The third in a trilogy of EPs, Anthropos rounds off a journey begun with Out Of The…And Into Your Own Light and follows Helios.
According to it’s maker, whilst “Anthropos is about the female life giving and creative force, it is water, it is the ‘so below.’ It is an album about the material realm of matter where humans find themselves. It is a low point, but still infused with the universe’s will to learn about itself.”
“[Helios] is centred around the male: it is fire, it is the ‘as above.’… [it is] about the transition between the spiritual idea space and the beginning of physical existence.” As a whole, the trilogy “forms a meditation on different aspects of Gnostic and occult themes concerning the physical manifestation of ideas. They also reflect on traditional occult and philosophical meanings and interpretations of the two triangles that form the Star of David.”
Whilst opener ‘Substance’ is a droning, melancholic journey of yearning across a snow-dusted mountainscape, its companion ‘Anthropos’ begins as an almost dungeon-synth-esque homecoming, concluding its trilogy with a relentless blast of black metal fury and ending abruptly, leaving the soul of the listener cleansed, ready to continue on its journey through the world. Listen below:
Anthropos will be available digitally on 21st June directly from the artist’s Bandcamp page here. Akashic Envoy Records will also be releasing the full trilogy on in a limited edition box set. Pre-orders here.
Words: Richard Lowe
