Owl Stream “Madness is the Glory of This Life”; New Album Nights in Distortion out Sept. 7
If you feel like having your brain worked over by a meat tenderizer, by all means, dig into the new Owl track at the bottom of this post. At high volume. The song digs into vibes out of death metal and band-founder Christian Kolf rightly namechecks Type O Negative as a source of inspiration for its cleaner parts, but the vibe that pervades is still one of churning extremity. In the barking harsher vocals, one can also hear shades of Godflesh, but they’re recontextualized almost past the point of recognition, and yeah, it’s six and a half minutes of consciousness assault. It’s the last track on Owl‘s upcoming LP, Nights in Distortion, and I’m not going to spoil anything by giving timestamps or some such, but just know that when you think you’re most safe is when you’re the least safe. It seems crass to say I’m looking forward to hearing more given the passing of bassist René Marquis, but the creativity on display in “Madness is the Glory of This Life” is a suitable reminder of the depths in which Owl so righteously reside.
Earlier this year, the band released the single-song EP, Orion Fenix (review here), and you can stream that as well as the new song below.
Info follows from the PR wire:
GERMAN DOOM CULT, OWL, OVERCOMES TRAGEDY FOR INTENSE NEW ALBUM ‘NIGHTS IN DISTORTION’
Some of the best art is often made in the wake of the worst tragedies. Such is the case with Germany’s doom metal band Owl, whose forthcoming, 3rd full-length album, Nights In Distortion, nearly never came to fruition due to the impact of the death of their bassist René Marquis. Over 4 years in the making, the band’s long-awaited record will finally be realized on September 7th via the Swedish label Temple of Torturous Records.
Owl’s (Germany) founder and primary songwriter Christian Kolf, who’s also a member of the critically renowned metal band Valborg (Prophecy Productions) and founder of the label Zeitgeister, created the band in the mid-2000’s as a necessity to further explore and challenge his musical creativity. What began as a death metal project has evolved over the years, incorporating Kolf’s eclectic tastes and influences that’s resulted in an amalgam of death and doom that conjures memories of Type O Negative, Jesu, Neurosis, Anathema and Meshuggah among others.
“I have to say that this album is still heavy for me when I listen to it,” says Kolf. “There are a lot of grievous memories connected to that album, but foremost it’s about my friend René Marquis who died some months ago, who played bass on it. He was really a nice chap. You could nerd with him about music and instruments for hours. He gave us all a big vibe. And to have him on board for this album was very very helpful. Sometimes I thought “why should I do this, it’s stupid, just chill and make music when better times come,“ because I knew that it would be draining somehow. But René always said “do it.“ It was good to have a partner for this album, someone I could talk too and share it with.”
Discussing the record’s first released track “Madness Is The Glory of This Life,” Kolf says, “I wanted a twisted cosmic Death Metal song to end the album. Inspired by Gorguts and Type O Negative. To love means to fear, to fear means to hate. The origin of so many problems in humanity. Life is crazy, so madness is the glory of this life. When you are in weird place and like that music, it probably should give you some strength. It is about Total Forlornness.”
Nights In Distortion Tracklisting:
We Are Made For Twilight
Transparent Monument
Anamnesis
Inanna In Isolation
Abortion of Empathy
Madness Is The Glory Of This Life
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