News : Memoria release Death Calls The Islands (free download)

Press release:

Australian blackened metallers Memoria have today released their third full-length album entitled “Death Calls The Islands”, which the band describes as a “a guitar-driven album that is simultaneously beautiful and ugly”, via Daniel Vrangsinn’s Misantrof ANTIRecords. The album will be available both in physical format as a CD, and, in keeping with Misantrof’s philosophy, as a high quality MP3 download , which can be downloaded free from the Misantrof website at http://memoria.misantrof.net/

Following 2008’s experimental noise album “Memorioquia : Auradeutung”, Memoria have prioritised the heavier aspect of their sound, and “Death Calls The Islands” is a stunning, moving mix of black metal, death metal and classical guitar traditions. Founding member Jonathan Carroll (guitars, vocals, sound design, synthesiser) says of the release: “I see this album as the very unique product of having immersed ourselves in European underground music… letting these influences exist in our minds and then creating without trying to emulate anyone or anything”. Memoria draw on a vast range of influences, from Emperor, Ulver, DHG and Ministry to the sound designs of David Lynch and the modernist fiction of Cormac Mcarthy. The abstract, surreal lyrical content of “Death Calls The Islands” deals with isolation and alienation, themes which also find themselves manifested in the album’s unique artwork. Created by Australian artist Danielle Freakley from moulded octopus tentacles, the piece represents “the strange beauty and ugliness that reside within us as human beings, and the primal world from which we are not too far removed”.

The partnership with Misantrof ANTIRecords, founded in 2007 by Daniel Vrangsinn (Vrangsinn, Carpathian Forest, Secht) was a logical one for Memoria. Given that the band is experienced in producing its own material, Misantrof’s approach of letting the bands have full creative control of their own work proved to be a great fit. “To be part of an evolving, independent artistic entity such as Misantrof fits perfectly with our values and was not a hard decision,” says Jonathan, “We create music because we love this art form and no one in Memoriawanted this tainted by the nastiness of financial or commercial considerations. Misantrof surpasses pathetic considerations about how to sell things that are genuinely different”. For his part, Vrangsinn is extremely pleased to be releasing “Death Calls The Islands”, and has high hopes that it will be received with as much acclaim as 2010’s breakaway Misantrof release, “Death Reclaims The Earth”, by Turkish Black Metallers EPISODE 13.