Melancholic Death/Doom maestro Viktor Jonas returns once more with seven songs of sadness and solitude in the form of At The Edge of The World, the new album from Apathy Noir.
As the second collaboration in a row between Jonas and vocalist Andy Walmsley (Beyond Grace, Twilight’s Embrace), the new album showcases a richer and more emotionally resonant version of the sound the two developed on Black Soil, reflecting the growth in the duo’s creative partnership.
Conceptually the album returns once again to the mystery and majesty of the sea, a theme which the band’s music has touched upon before, on albums such as A Silent Nowhere (2008) and Across Dark Waters (2016), but which here serves as the background and inspiration for every single song.
From the horror and helplessness of the refugee (“Cold Harbour”) to the plight of poor laborers, poisoned by the derelicts abandoned on their shores (“The Shipbreaker’s Song”) - alongside references to Buddhist philosophy (“Wanderers”) and the work of H. P. Lovecraft (“Black Seas of Infinity”) - the lyrics tell stories of humanity’s hopes and dreams, fears and fantasies, embodied by the unknowable vastness of the ocean.
Careless in its beauty, endless in its bounty yet unclaimed
Without mercy or compassion, boundless and untamed
Musically the album is the band’s deepest, darkest, and most progressive work yet, comparable in both style and spirit to the early works of Opeth and October Tide, Dawn and Dark Tranquillity.
But it’s also undeniably their most poignant and personal record too, containing some of the most powerful riffs and sorrowful melodies they’ve ever written, resulting in a series of songs that are more intense, more intricate, and more immersive than anything they’ve done before, and which serve to refine and redefine the sound of Apathy Noir for a whole new era.
At The Edge of The World will be released digitally and physically on August 5, 2021.
Pre-orders available on https://vjonas.bandcamp.com
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