I like reliability in bands as much as the next person, and it’s good sometimes to put something on and just sink into familiarity. It’s another experience altogether to take on music from a band that’s constantly changing, maintaining its DNA but always pushing toward something else that charges.

Belgian metal power Amenra very much fall into the latter, and when they put out new music, you have to leave your expectations at the door, because they don’t deal in formulas. Speaking of which, they’re back with a duo of EPs that pull from different sound palettes from their history and update them for the present. “De Toorn” and “With Fang and Claw” definitely sound like the same band, but broken up into different regions of their creative minds. The band—vocalist Colin H. van Eeckhout, guitarists Mathieu Vandekeckhove, Lennart Bossu, and Tim De Gieter, percussionist Bjorn J. Lebon (Oathbreaker’s Caro Tanghe provides backing vocals—gives you more reflective, meditative tones on “De Toorn,” while “Fang” is grislier and heavier, a bloodier package that leaves its mark with force. Both, especially when digested back to back, give an encapsulation of their melodic forces, their cerebral energies, each leaving a different lasting impression.  

The “De Toorn” portion opens with “Heden,” spreading with knocking effects echoing, a slow build, and spoken verses in their native tongue. Guitars glisten as the words sprawl, continuing to work deeper into the fog, soft singing lurking, and the path widening as chilling air approaches. At about the 9:35 mark, the track detonates, shrieks maiming as the tension tightens the cord, screaming and singing disappearing into hypnosis. “De Toorn (Talisman)” starts calmly, drums tapping as the spoken words drip, calls echoing as the calculated pace crawls into murk. Drums pace as the bass quivers, a sullen darkness spreading overhead, clean guitars beginning a ramp up and exploding, shrieks carving bone as the doom waters thicken. Dusty riffs choke, the playing bashes away, and the screams belt rib cages as the cosmos opens its jaws. 

The “With Fang & Claw” portion opens with “All Is Light” as a noise haze hovers, gushing as the shrieks create a smoke cloud, harsh and colorful melodies uniting and tangling, bursting with new colors that blaze across the sky. The playing melts into a corrosive pile, the growls gut as the intensity shoulder blocks its way in, the humidity thickening and choking. “Talisman/Wrath” closes the collection, guitars spiraling, screams leaving dents, the doom gust thickening and filling lungs. The pace grows more urgent, the vocals crushing before the tidal wave pulls back, entering reflective realms, clean singing soothing before a final stab. Screams gut as menacing riffs encircle, stirring and wrecking before the power finally subsides.

These two EPs feel like, as designed, as a trip through specific stages of the Amenra canon, and both bring inventive, reflective, and menacing chapters to both their surreal and brutal work. Each EP also fits different moods, depending on what you’re feeling, though a journey through the whole thing isn’t an unwelcome thing no matter where your head is at the moment. This band never rests, always evolves, and leaves the listener emotionally and spiritually tested like very few other bands can accomplish.

For more on the band, go here: https://amenra.bandcamp.com/

To buy the album, go here: https://www.relapse.com/collections/amenra-de-toorn-with-fang-and-claw

For more on the label, go here: https://www.relapse.com/