Albez Duz Premiere “Our Lord, the Flayed One” Video
Posted in Bootleg Theater on June 9th, 2017 by JJ KoczanWith a fist-in-the-air grandstanding chorus and theatrical metallic chug in its tense verse, Albez Duz‘s ‘Our Lord, the Flayed One’ was a highlight of the Berlin outfit’s 2016 third album, Wings of Tzinacan (review here). The record basked in goth atmospherics and found its way fluidly into more extremely metallic fare, as does the track in question with its later, pre-solo section of deathly growls, but maintained a progressive feel darkened in its ambience and given a classic edge through interplay of organ and other sonic flourish. In other words, shit was complex. Had a lot going on.
What held it together, however, was that hook. The song almost stops to make way for vocalist Alfonso Brito Lopez to deliver the title line, and rightly so. Lopez‘s power as a singer is evident all throughout the track — and the album, for that matter — and in company with the fervent push of founding drummer and multi-instrumentalist Eugen Herbst (formerly of Dies Ater) and the cast-in-molten-steel guitar work of Julia Neuman, Albez Duz paint a complete sonic portrait that easily crosses genre lines from a doomed center while remaining grounded in a relatively straightforward, structured delivery that doesn’t feel any more self-indulgent than it should given its inherent drama and atmospheric thrust.
Albez Duz recently completed a short tour of Germany and Austria, including a stop at the Live Evil fest in their hometown where they played alongside a deeply varied bill including Aura Noir, Bang, Possession, Solstice, Cauldron and others. Though it’s over, I mention it because it’s a particularly all-over-the-place lineup and yet there doesn’t seem to have been an individual band involved with whom Albez Duz would be out of place sharing a stage. The way their sound plays to multiple sides, and the coherent, encompassing spirit of the material they bring to bear on Wings of Tzinacan is both deeply individualized and able to engage on different levels of familiarity.
Dig into the odd, vaguely S&M-themed video for “Our Lord, the Flayed One” below, and enjoy:
Albez Duz, “Our Lord, the Flayed One” official video
Music video for OUR LORD THE FLAYED ONE by ALBEZ DUZ.
Album / Wings of Tzinacan.
Label / LISTENABLE RECORDS
Shot and Directed by Achilleas Gatsopoulos. Editing by Eugen Herbst and Andreas Hofmann. Colour Correction & Grading by HYPNAGOGIA. Performance footage filmed on location at DU BEAST, Berlin. Makeup by Bella Grigoryants. Camera assistant & Stills Photography by Tenia Dimakopoulou. Tezcatlipoca footage filmed at HOLY MOUNTAIN STUDIOS, Berlin. Tezcatlipoca ….. Valenting Tszin. Makeup by Sonya Sounyaeva. Styling by Achilleas Gatsopoulos. Camera assistant & Stills Photography by Henni-Maria.