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Astres

by EPECTASE

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blackshoeswhitesocks
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blackshoeswhitesocks Seventies groove meets black metal chug. Works way better than that description would lead you to believe. Favorite track: Entering the Domain of the Solar Sovereign.
bcb723
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bcb723 This is a flat-out beautifully constructed album. Just wow... speechless. Favorite track: Entering the Domain of the Solar Sovereign.
Riff Spreader
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Riff Spreader Progressive black metal? I didn't know I needed this album until I heard it, and now I think about it every day.
Lovdahl, Ian
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Lovdahl, Ian + My 2nd Favorite Metal Album of 2019 +
It's like black metal Emerson, Lake & Palmer. ELP is a top 5 band for me, so this album is wild. I, Voidhanger is the best.
EDIT: 2 years later, it’s still an absolute blast to shout along with the classic opening line, “A PORTAL OPENS WIDE!” every time. Favorite track: As He Runs Towards the Stars.
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1.
A portal opens wide Frightful sights, through the night I've been reached up close and I saw the light The petrifying vastness of space is now omniscient Metaphysical separation Continuous dissociation My soul wanders free, contemplative Still my vacant body inert and shrouded Into the universe I might prosper Cold as the deep waters of doubt and damnation Confusing visions impregnating All areas of consciousness The profound nightsky calls for me Violated by forces not known to men A wave of tension propagating Crashing against the shores of our system My muted shrieks resonating Within the mirage of an ivory tower From this sphere of sand and ocean We're dissolving and I must run Into the universe I might prosper Cold as the deep waters of time and space I am drowning Convulsing under the firmament's eye Terrestrial I will no longer be A pantheon of stars Reached by dream and thought Am I dying or is this life? An answer that you might not find A thousand years of sleep Till' matter is finally transcended The eroded memories Of what was once so closely held What will remain from me? When I'll be gone to enter The realm of the empty I refuse to be consumed by time Open the doors of existence For they might remain unseen But were never kept As he runs towards the stars Vanishing far from where we are Condemned on Earth to disappear Is this the beauty of our kind? A blissful catastrophe Painted in my dream forever Till' we all dive in the empty This portal I will choose for savior
2.
Caught in the nauseous maelstrom Horrified yet I contemplate These fields of sempiternal figures Reflections of my mental state Hovering in orbital delirium Inertia is my fate Flashing before my eyes, theses planets Upon those entities I subjugate Open wide your eyes Immersion drift away Dissociate the inner from the outer Stars, a projection of arrows Aiming for psychic distorsion Bending the structures of the mind And all it allows us to perceive A celestial sea of mirrors Oscillating fluids Dripping down the scope Everflowing streams of light A myriad of shades The sight of godlike violence Illuminates the path to my escape Sink in the ethereal void Reject logic and gravitation Embrace your inner flow Drink from the everlasting soil Mountains of assumption you'll have to overcome Sink in the ethereal void Hide in veils of contemplation from the one who devours Sink in the ethereal void Bathe in these glorious cascades of stars I felt the freezing blaze of a calcinating threat Infernal star swallowing, without reaching satiety A dogma which does not apply, to those Craving for triumph and annihilation They're taking me by force Perdition is their name I despise the one they bow to Absorbed in the chromosphere Entering a domain I wish I was welcome to Impendent cenotaph resplending upon thou (Whispering stars dialogue) “What are you doing here? I heard he was one of them This random betrayer Infecting wanderer The cause of the bittersweetness of life Human insects You'll die You'll perish Here comes the king” Opium of the ancients Here I stand above Anti-cosmic architect The symbol whom they adore Every glimpse of life that crawls Worships my transcendental halo I am the demiurge The solar sovereign Casting you down I am the Sun!
3.
Dwelling amongst the fragments of the reason that once was mine Surrounded by this ensnaring black matter O' so translucid Expulsed from the inner core My lungs are compressed Against the cold radius Of nothingness Hovering in the vacant light A moment of absence The blurry reflection of the petrichor Enabling me to observe The city that fell asleep Suddenly I felt her pearly breasts embracing my lethargic flesh Her glacial lips whispering to my neck As I yield to the swelling warmth Is this the true nature of perdition? Nothingness (From) this synarchy catastrophe, will set you out And death might come to you, my child I'll wait, observe It was just a dream Adrift amidst complexities You'll be condemned You'll be condemned Mind this rise Embrace this light
4.
Tourmenté par cette onde qui résonne dans les cieux Pétrifie mon existence et pénètre mon âme Mon sang se glace et ma peine grandit J'implore le destin en contemplant, cette condition éphémère Pris dans ce cycle de névroses Périodiquement imprévisibles et soudaines A l'image de notre fin, gravée dans l'éther Dont les caprices n'ont d'égale que ma hantise pour elles Incertain je m'interroge Est-ce mourir que de naître ou la mort est-elle est une renaissance? Une froideur envahissante C'est l'espace qui m'attire Le cosmos qui m'exile Contraint de quitter ce corps meurtri Par les horreurs d'une imagination noyée dans l'anxiété Il suffit d'un regard, d'un pas vers ces abysses Pour que mon existence, inconsolable, soit transpercée de vices Il suffit d'un écart, d'un songe vers cet abîme Pour que le sol, l'espace et le temps, se dérobent sous mes pieds Ce flux aux couleurs obsidiennes Funeste projection d'une entropie constante Immergé dans cette expérience funèbre Dont l'ineluctabilité, lacère mon Âme Cet océan, où mes songes s'engouffrent Cet océan où mes larmes ruissellent La dédale des astres et des âmes Là où tous les hommes s'achèvent égaux devant l'effroi La dédale des astres et des âmes Une souffrance natale insufflée par la violence de l'univers tout entier Mort soudaine? Ou détachement progressif de l'âme? Ils m'ont emmenés, dans ces ombres dysphoriques Ils m'ont condamnées, j'entends leurs rires cyniques Enfermés dans nos fantasmes labyrinthiques Ils nous rient au nez, ces astres diaboliques ---------------- The Maze of Stars and Soul Tormented by this waves that resonate in the skies Petrifying my existence and penetrating my soul My blood freezes up and my pain rises up I implore destiny while contemplating This ephemeral condition Caught in this cycle of neurosis Periodically unpredictable yet abrupt Resembling the image of our end, carved in ether Whom serenades, equal only my despise for them Uncertain I wander Is living a way of dying or is death a form of renaissance? An invading coldness It's space that pulls me under The cosmos that exiles me Forced to leave this body, tortured By the horrors of an imagination Drowned in anxiety It's only a matter of a look Of a step towards this abyss For my existence, inconsolable To be pierced by vices It only requires a misstep A thought towards these depths For ground, space and time To crumble under my bare feet This flux with obsidian colors Funest projection of a constant entropy Immersed in this baleful experience Whom ineluctability Lacerates my soul This ocean where my thoughts drown This ocean where my tears fall down The maze of stars and souls Where all men end equal in front of the horror The maze of stars and souls A suffering injected by the violence of a whole universe Sudden death or progressive detachment of the soul? They brought me in these dysphoric shadows They condemned me, I hear their cynical laughs Trapped in our ensnaring phantasm They laugh at us these cynical stars
5.
Porté par les vagues de ma propre finitude Je voguerai vers des cieux aux couleurs d'un espoir dérobé Les reflets du soleil, dans cette mer pourpre et saillante C'est sur cette plage au goût amer que s'achèvera mon existence J'implore le ciel et le destin Englouti par le néant Puissent ces flôts noyer mon corps Puissiez vous ma mémoire chérir Un astre pourfend cet océan Tel la flèche d'Indra Les astres se dessinent dans le ciel Mon âme les vaincra Jusqu'au jour où la voute céleste se déchirera Se déchirera... Des mains pour donner Des mains pour reprendre Des mains pour créer Des mains pour tuer Des mains, l'outil des Dieux Des mains, l'outil des Dieux ------------------ THE PURPLE SEA Carried by the waves of my own finitude I will sail towards skies of a stolen hope The reflections of the sun on this purple and salient sea It's on these sands with bitter taste That my existence will reach it's end I implore the sky and destiny Swallowed by the void May these waves carry my body May you cherish my memory A star pierces this ocean With Indra's arrow Stars draw themselves in the sky My soul will defeat them Until the day where the celestial dome Will disintegrate Will tear itself apart Hands to give Hands to take back Hands to create Hands to murder Hands, the tools of gods Hands, the tools of gods

about

BUY Ltd DIGIPACK CD from our ESHOP:

metalodyssey.8merch.com/product/epectase-astres-cd/

Deluxe 6-panel Digipack CD with Slipcase, 12-page booklet with lyrics and extra art. Strictly limited to 300 copies.

_______________________

Hailing from France, EPECTASE is the formidable duo of Vague and Avitus, talented musicians with a unique approach to the metal genre, true believers in the superiority of artistic vision and expression over stylistic boundaries.
Despite being their first opus, “Astres” is a surprisingly mature effort. Revolving around the concepts of human mortality, space and out-of-body experiences, it lives up to the band's name (épectase means the moving of man towards god) and follows the journey of an individual dwelling into the depths of his own consciousness. Music-wise, EPECTASE skilfully alternates ominous, frantic black metal riffs with hypnotic and groovy mid-sections typical of 70's prog, often leading to epic finales where the intensity never ceases to rise up until it reaches an exploding breaking point. It's the case of the monumental “Enter the Domain of the Solar Sovereign”, which propels the listener into outer space, to face the mysteries of creation.

The vocal performances from Avitus and Vague range from raspy, stinging screeches to funereal gurgling growls, enigmatic clean singing and operatic vocals reminiscent of those from URFAUST. Around them, the duo builds impressive architectures of cosmic scale, fluidly moving from dark ambient landscapes of electronic beauty to cascades of guitar leads, luminous melodies, meditative atmospheres and pummeling rhythms.
The heart of the album is in the last two tracks, “La Dédale des Astres et des Âmes” and “La Mer Pourpre”, over 30 minutes of deflagrating black metal crescendo conjuring up the waves of anxiety and the sense of madness intrinsic to the ideas of mortality and human finitude in an entropic and stagnating universe. It's the final disintegration of the self, the certainty that nobody can escape death, and that the void awaits us all.

“Astres” comes as a luxurious and limited Digipack CD wrapped in a slipcase, with a booklet featuring Avitus' drawings to accompany each stage of EPECTASE's spiritual -yet bitter- journey.

credits

released May 24, 2019

Epectase is:
Avitus - harsh vocals and operatic vocals
Vague - all instruments, clean vocals, guttural vocals, programming

All music and lyrics written and performed by Epectase
Recorded, mixed and produced by Vague
Mastered by Giorgio Tskhadadze at Chaos Worship Arts
Vocals on tracks 1 and 2 recorded at Hostile's home studio

Additional vocals on "La Mer Pourpre" by Iris Le Gal
All artworks, drawings and logo by Emil Rousse at Faquin Illustration
Art direction and layout by Francesco Gemelli
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Cat. Nr. IVR114

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