Aptera – You Can’t Bury What Still Burns
Aptera – You Can’t Bury What Still Burns
Ripple Music
Release Date: 17/06/22
Running Time: 40:00
Review by Paul Hutchings
7/10
Based in Berlin, Aptera is a combination of musicians drawn from all over the globe. Well, Italy, Belgium, US, and Brazil to be precise. Named after the site of the battle between the Sirens and the Muses in Greek mythology, Aptera are another all-female band to add to the ever-increasing list of musicians that are now holding their own in the world of Metal.
With their debut EP released in 2019, now is the hour for their debut release to be unleashed and it’s a decent listen. Combining several styles, it’s almost impossible to pigeon-hole the quartet but a couple of listens throw out influences including Mastodon, Sabbath, Neurosis and even the fine Messa (whose album Close released in March is well worth checking out).
It’s by no means the finished article, but the rawness and pure energy is part of the appeal. The vocals are at times ragged and yet they work well, bringing a dour, haunting delivery that sits comfortably alongside the heavier, sludgy tracks that dominate the release. ‘Selkies’ for example, switches from up-tempo semi-Thrash to slower, Doom laden segments with ease. There’s some decent guitar work laced across this release, and the thick riffs and powerful rhythm section ensure that the songs are appropriately damaging.
‘Days of Void’ is pretty much Sabbath worship, but when the song is as compelling as this one, who really cares. Aptera bring heaviness combined with enough variation to make it more than simple adulation.
Whilst most of the themes in the album centre of mythological tales of rebellion, revenge and rising from the ashes, there can’t be much challenge to the penultimate song. ‘When the Police Murder’ is either a statement about the problems in the US, or outrage at Sting and co for doing damage to ears with their music. I’ll plump for the former. And whilst most songs sit in the short category, averaging around the four-to-five-minute mark, Aptera end ‘You Can’t Bury What Still Burns’ with a gargantuan eight-minute song in ‘Nepenthes’ which switches between frantic speeds and crushingly slow slabs of doom-laden metal.
It’s not an album that will make my top releases of 2022, yet there is ample to unpick and enjoy. For a debut it stands solid and true, and Aptera are yet another band to put on the list to keep an eye out for in the future.
‘When The Police Murder’ Official Visualizer Video
TRACKLISTING:
01. Voice of Thunder
02. Selkies
03. Mercury
04. Unbearable Stain
05. Cosmosis
06. Days of Void
07. When the Police Murder
08. Nepenthes
LINE-UP:
Michela Albizzati – Guitar, Vocals
Celia Paul – Bass, Vocals
Renata Helm – Guitar, Backing Vocals
Sara Neidorf – Drums
LINKS:
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