MASS CULTURE, originating and hailing from the land of Greece, are one of those hyper-talented bands that don’t come around often enough in the realm of extreme metal; in that they incorporate certain aesthetics from a multitude of other metal styles but blend them together in a way as to complement their own form of songwriting.
Guest review by IDIOTEQ Texas based contributor Eddie Cantú
We have teamed up with the band to give you their thoughts on their massive debut album “Primal | Ephemeral” and take us through each and every song and its meaning. Check it out
The album as a whole, deals with feelings of isolation, fear, passion and some of the feelings and instincts that have always been a part of human nature, hence the “primal” part of “Primal | Ephemeral”. We tend to overanalyze every single thing – be it data, ideologies, or even people. We try to break down every single aspect of a person’s personality into “boxes”, categorizing them, taking only things we find “useful”, and then moving on to the next one. This is, in my opinion, the ultimate form of consumerism: we, as a society, have reached to a point where we consume people. We try and make people fit into our standards, change the parts of a person that we don’t like, and don’t take the time to invest on people and accept somebody as a whole. After something or someone has lost its usefulness, we cast it away. This is the “Ephemeral” part of the album title.
Cover by Putrefurnaced Guerrilla Graphics.
“Primal – Ephemeral”, just released in August 10, is the title of the very impressive debut album by Mass Culture, and is, in my opinion, guaranteed to attract any fan of the Sludge Metal, and Post-Metal subgenres. Seemingly to be the students of sludge metal legends such as Neurosis, and Sleep – Mass Culture really know how to craft an interesting, heavy song all the while keeping a steady groove and flow to their songwriting. That’s not to say, however, that this album isn’t dynamic. In fact, one of the elements that has quickly made me a fan of this group is their keen use of ambience and structured transitions into different styles of heaviness. Many props must be given to their drummer (who is not named) for his talent of accenting his interesting patterns over the more progressive, trance-like moments of this album, and in general for knowing when to provide a supportive rhythm section as well as when to shine through a minimal riff.
Instrumentally, guitars and bass embody the true spirit of the doomed, sludge metal subgenre – what I mean is that there’s no real moments of shredding or times when one instrument is completely outshining another, rather the songwriting is constructed as to be a collective force prepared to reckon and be reckoned with. But let me tell you about what it is that has deeply impressed me about this debut offering: It seems to me that in this upcoming era of new bands, there isn’t many groups interested in crafting a full album anymore – rather, an album has become a collection of singles. But with “Primal – Ephemeral” the very atmosphere, and the way each song follows the next really brings back the nostalgia of the genre’s early days and I for one think it is so because of the broad influences incorporated and showcased. I might even dare to compare this band conceptually to a band like Agalloch by their culmination of influences all worked towards a greater vision.
Do you think Sludge Metal and Post-Metal have become relatively boring and/or restrained over the years too? Then play this record and share the newborn awe of hope.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐★★
SCORE: 8/10
Του φόβου η φωνή (Fear’s Voice)
This song mainly deals with loneliness, the sort of social outcasting that comes with being restless, ever-doubting and questioning. Visually, I imagined someone being all alone on a mountain top, having a dialogue with Isolation itself materialized as an avatar on another mountain top on the opposite side.
Lyrics:
Του φόβου η φωνή,
κοιτά,
μια άοσμη βροχή,
μπροστά.
Σαν νεογνό που κλαίει,
ξανά,
στέκεται μου λέει,
αργά.
«Είμαι η ερημία αυτών που αναζητούν.
Αυτών που θα ρωτούν.
Αυτών που δεν ξεχνούν.»
The tower turned Into Strength
The concept of this song is introspection, overthinking and overanalyzing every single bit of yourself, up to a point of “implosion”, of breakdown. This, I believe, is also reflected as a journey very well in the music of the song itself. At the point of the implosion, when chaos ensues, the music has been built up and “bursts” out, accompanying the theme.
Lyrics:
Moldy stone walls are burning.
Blackened. Within me. Like beasts.
Confirming their nature dictates
turning the tower into strength.
Spiraling. As we did. Forgetting. As we do.
The sun has set in the North.
A star that tasted like fire.
A walk into the core of our bones.
The tower turned into strength.
Dismantling the knots
This is about the burden that comes with being human, having consciousness, reasoning, and trying to make sense out of everyday life, religion, death. The ever-changing and always in motion human nature that is rooted in us is cumbersome, but is in the end what keeps us from being stale and rotting.
Lyrics:
What is truth (Clay)
What is lies (In our veins)
Time rushes through (Possessed by)
It passes by (disease)
New day comes (A hole into)
Another puke (The crackling fire)
Another ache (Cycling a)
Redemption (Fall)
Inner and (Graves)
Cellar (In these veins)
The obsession of (Swallowed as)
Possession (One)
Afar and (Crawl into)
Stellar (The lost desire)
Solidarity’s (Never)
Discretion (Enough – What is left)
As we became the sole
-Along we stand-
As we remained loneliness
-With no remorse-
As we turned to whole
-We grab our chance-
As we retained emptiness
-With no regrets-
As we became the whole
We will retain emptiness
As we became the sun
We will retain holiness
Night – The lurker’s divine
Shadows – The darkness inside
Watching the rotting of life
Through lies we act and we die
Binaural Phase Infection
This is an interlude, so no lyrics to this one. Making this was very fun, we sat down with our audio engineer, added a few effects on our instruments, a violin bow, an EBow, and just droned away.
Π
Π is the Greek letter for P, as in the Arcadian ancient Greek god Pan. God of nature, indulgence and chaos (the word panic derives from him), Pan represents the exact opposite of the sterilized, devoid of emotion world that we are on track of “achieving”. This song serves as a reminder that life without chaos, without Pan, is infertile and stagnate.
Lyrics:
Twirling black hell.
Thousands of forms.
Ignis nigrantis.
A gathering of might.
The darkness in horns
stares in the eye.
All into nothing.
Nothing is all.
Burning within the flesh,
perversion and wilderness.
Stationed in this world,
revive it once again.
– White pigeons mark peace, but worms are still being eaten.
Weak are sacrificed once again in the name of prosperity.
Hell is compromise.
Hell is not out of this world.
All is nothing.
Nothing is all. –
Harvest
This is about passion. Passion is what drives humanity, and we are in a state where passion is discarded in favor of reason. Passion is the only thing that is able to bring change in our life, and is capable of destroying people and worlds.
Lyrics:
I’ve seen the signs (Swollen)
burning in me. (Oozing)
Harvest the Moon (Wholesome)
as we are one. (Driven)
Since we dissolved
in bits of information,
Our blood
will be
the end
of all.
Our blood
will be
the end
of us.
The Lord to the Living One’s Mountain
The title is actually an ancient Sumerian poem describing a part of the “Epic of Gilgamesh”. I thought of describing the inevitability of death from the perspective of a King who was regarded as a God. Death will always be feared by man.
Lyrics:
Honor my
striking will.
Obey my
gallant words.
Honor me.
Obey me.
Valiant me.
Crowning me.
Took it away.
They took it away.
The children in black.
Our fathers and sons.
Καμιά ζωή δεν είναι αρκετή.
Καμιά πληγή δεν είναι αγνή.
What remains of Grace
This is a very special song, lyric-wise. What I had in mind was a group of travellers, running into a beggar by a campfire. The beggar pleads for the travellers to stay and listen to his story. You can find the beggar’s story in the album’s artwork.
Lyrics:
Stay
Stay for a day
Stay for a day, I lost my way
Stay
Stay for a day
Crusader’s dismay, heading my way
Stay
Stay for a day
Stay for a day, you’ve lost your way
Stay
Stay for a day
Crusader’s dismay, heading your way
Stay for a day
Listen my way
Stay for a day
Senses betray
Crafting away
A solid display
Condemning the prey
Tossed like a stray
Stepping away
Stay for a day
Pray for my way
Stay for a day
Rising….
Rising again..
So close..
To being atonement..
A Day..
Full of condemn..
Rising…
Rising Again..
Mass Culture, formed in 2011, is composed from four individuals, coming from Tripolis-Sparti-Athens, Greece.
Each member has had its own musical path and identity, but having common components and a wide appreciation for the music of bands such as Isis, Neurosis, Cult of Luna, they decided to start up a band somewhere along those lines.
They started, however, experimenting and incorporating further elements into their music, varying from the post-hardcore outfits of Time to Burn and Buried Inside, to the doomy sound of Yob, with a Fall of Efrafa/ Downfall of Gaia dark neocrust feel, retaining the ambient/post-metal Omega Massif-like sound and, of course, many more.
In August 2018, their first full length album “Primal | Ephemeral” was released, with the help of Nothing to Harvest records and Sweetohm recordings
You can listen and download it for free at this location.
