APTERA (DEU) – You Can’t Bury What Still Burns, 2022
We were lucky enough to find out about this band through an interview reference by the black metal combo ARDE, and their bassist Celia Paul, who we will find playing the same instrument, and doing vocals, for APTERA.
Comprised entirely of women, the band defines itself as «a guttural cry, a battle call, a resurrection with wings of fire”. A free soul phoenix that rises from Italy, Belgium the US, and Brazil, paying homage to traditional genres in their own particular way. The APTERA one.
You Can’t Bury What Still Burns starts off with heavy metal and traditional doom, somewhere in between JUDAS PRIEST and BLACK SABBATH with the particularity of the voices having a more punkish/riot grrrl approach, which is going to be one of the key points that make this combo so attractive.
But that isn’t it at all. There’s an amazing amalgam of other musical styles right in the out with every new song that will come.
Thrash metal with «Silkies» – punk splashed on «Nephentes» – while introducing more of that psych phase that the guitars are going to feed us, along with traditional melodic doom dialogues, and those solos that breathe the ’70s and ’80s sound. Black metal tremolo representation with «Unbearable Stain«, stoner times, slower sludge-like sections…
And, compositional structures that initially may seem like a simple sequence of repeating notes because they will easily get stuck in our heads. Our perception will change with songs like «Mercury«, with some á la MASTODON progressive vibe, or «When The Police Murders» and some rock riffing that could bring the Italians MESSA to mind. And many jazz moments performed by their drummer Sara Neidorf, who is also involved in many other amazing projects that we can’t do but highly recommend: SARATTMA, MELLOWDEATH or CHORAL HEARSE for starters. But, yeah, there are others.
In protest, and in solidarity, these huge musicians have created an album that will be great fun to listen to for those with a more modern ear, and also for those who long for the past. But do not forget: it comes under the authentic APTERA brand.
