Amenra: a sermon of sludge metal

The slow-moving, infectious, ethereal post-metal of Amenra sounds like a steamroller – and, at the same time, makes time stand still. After years of beavering away in the underground, they have now got a contract with the influential US label Neurot Recordings. “Why?”, we asked frontman Colin H. van Eeckhout. Coincidence or not, that turned out to be his favourite question.

Long ago, three of the members of Amenra were in the same hardcore band, but a time came when they got fed up of the clichés and wanted something with more gut feeling and more brains. “This slower, heavy, repetitive sound is a much better fit,” says frontman Colin 
H. Van Eeckhout. “We started out from the idea that if we really put our heart and soul into our music, people would feel that. We have become more egotistical. When we were sixteen we still took into account what other people thought of us. In Amenra we consciously stopped doing that. Things had to become more introspective, more relevant, more meaningful. The first question we ask ourselves is: why? If there is no obvious answer to that, then we’d prefer not to do it.”

Amenra has been around for thirteen years. How come we are only hearing of you now?
Colin H. van Eeckhout: Back home in Kortrijk people do know us, and via the Internet and lots of tours we have a loyal fan base abroad too. Lots of people were surprised that our show in the AB sold out immediately, but the sub-scene we operate in is very loyal. We don’t need to be pushed by the mainstream media. So sometimes we pass under the radar.

That might change now your new album, Mass V, is being released on the same label as Neurosis, the godfathers of sludge metal.
Van Eeckhout: They are certainly one of the bands that strongly influenced us, even though our sound is a bit more minimal. We deliberately stick to a basic instrumental line-up with no synths. Thanks to our contract with Neurot, the album will be better distributed anyway. Even if there was only rubbish on it, lots of people would find it cool just because of the explicit endorsement of the label behind Neurosis.


A nice side-effect is that the album is coming out in the US too. Any plans?
Van Eeckhout: We’re not allowed into America any more! If you want to go on tour in the US, you have to get a work permit that costs 2,000 dollars, but then you lose money. On our previous tours, when the customs people asked about our instruments and so on, we got out of it by saying we were going to record with some friends in New York. But on our last tour we made the mistake of making a little excursion into Canada. Now we are on a blacklist. That’s a pity, but on the other hand: the world is big enough. We can still go to Russia, Australia, Japan…

Back to Mass V, the sequel to Mass I, II, III, and IIII: tracks like “Dearborn and Buried” and “A Mon Ame” point to a search for the inner man.
Van Eeckhout: We have always kept the metaphor of the mass. A mass is for us quite simply a moment of introspection. A sermon, a passage from the Bible, or a touch of heavy music can all trigger a moment of reflection. In my lyrics I highlight the process-like, cyclical side of life. Now that three of the four members of the group have become fathers, we are faced with that more than ever.

Neurosis singer Scott Kelly will be your guest at the AB. He sings on “Nowena I 9.10.” too. Eh...
Van Eeckhout: The title is a reference to the novena candle…and our CD was recorded over nine days…and by adding that little line it became an anagram for the names of my children, Ian and Owen, who were born on 10 September.

Amenra Mass V releaseshow • 22/12, 18.00, SOLD OUT!, Ancienne Belgique, boulevard Anspachlaan 110, Brussel/Bruxelles, 02-548.24.24, info@abconcerts.be, www.abconcerts.be