Scandinavian metal and crust / d-beat hardcore bands have had a long and lasting influence on both subcultures alongside their counterparts all over the world and it’s great to see and hear a lot of new acts addressing their roots and expanding to new sounds. Spiced up with some serious post rock and post metal landscapes, KIOVA‘s Oathbreaker, Fall of Efrafa and Neurosis inspired version of sludgy crust metal/hardcore not only delivers seamless bleak experience but also creates an identity of its own. Today, we’re giving you the first stream of the band’s debut album “An End in Motion”, slated for the official release on November 2nd via Suicide Records. Listen and see the first-hand track by track commentary expunding on its pessimistic view of ignorant and self-sentered humanity below!
Track-by-track commentary by vocalist Otto Eräjoki & bass player Christopher Livingstone:
I – Ruins Within Ruins
End of the line where lies turn to dust / redeem the price of our lifelong lust / a violent end for a violent kind / dying flame of an egocentric mind / virtuous in appearance / devilish in truth / murderous undertow embedded in our brood / ending a life brings bliss and rapture We are ruins within ruins and an end in motion / we seek extinction with a majestic devotion / our futile existence and a grave as a goal / heavy lies the crown of an apex race Sophisticated animal / just flesh and blood and bone and a dream / just a passing impulse here / soon to fade
Ruins Within Ruins – Lyrically this opening piece, as most of the lyrical theme on this album, tackles a pessimistic view of humanity devouring itself with an unfathomable greed and an innate need for violence. Even the smallest acts of altruism are bridled and twisted to suit the needs of conquering, submission, violence and profiteering. (OE)
II – Cold Cradle
Only disappointments await along the way / mirthless tomorrows and mornings of gloom / future dictates an impending doom / as our hope slowly recedes / a mistake by evolution / the curse of a conscience / an existential dread / if there’s a salvation / it will be found in death Growth is measured in global deprivation / safety found in total isolation / a doorless prison of own design / a place for hope to die As indifference is king / fathomless greed is the queen / sown in the fabric of our essence / we just want to see each other bleed / our own doom to redeem / extinction is a god / and we are the last priests of it’s hierarchy / cold cradle
Cold Cradle – How to try avoiding slipping into nihilism in a planet filled with a species so ignorant, self-centered and violent? As a member of that species whilst witnessing this all and trying to fend off an existential dread, the end goal seems to be extinction in all scenarios. (OE)
Continued below…
III – God needs no bones
Pray for thunder, pray for rain / show yourself if you’re everywhere/ on a hilltop, inside your head/ That is where he made his bed / god needs no bones / god needs no bones / Inside your skull, he left a seed / a virus, contagion, soon to be freed / from your mouth, airborne and free / the message spreads, for all to hear / Pictures depict our creator, our lord / a fictional figure, our so-called birth giver / man molded from clay, no immaculate conception / this is the end of ridiculous deception / Where is this man we refer to as father? / the king of all kings, creator of martyrs / left his own son on the cross / father of mistrust / Man molded from clay / inside your skull, he left a seed / a virus, contagion, soon to be freed / from your mouth, airborne and free / the message spreads, for all to hear / god needs no bones
God Needs No Bones – The title of this track caught my eye whilst reading ”Valonkantajat – Välähdyksiä suomalaisesta salatieteestä”, a book about the occult history here in Finland. Originally the song was supposed to be about the Tattarisuo case (Back in 1931 severed body parts were foung in the Tattarisuo fountain, later to be associated with a group practicing black magic), but it transformed into a text questioning religion and especially believing blindly in something that has no physical shape or form. (CL)
IV – Vessel
A blackened pact to sink a religion / lays seed for new world order / an ideological impregnation / an inhuman embryo Their vessel is a falsified truth / immaculate lies to defile them all / their shrines will become their tombs / invert prayers to defile them all / Their vessel is a falsified truth / conceived as the old god rots / Their vessel is a falsified truth / conceived as the old god rots Crumbling pillars of patriarchy / lifelong ranks of bigots / paving the way for our downfall
Vessel – An inspection how all organized religions are just patriarchal cults in varying degrees of size. Even the virtuous deeds and dogmas have an undertow of lust for power and profiting from indoctrinated people. (OE)
