In the hellish swoon of a fever dream we are set in reflection upon (and in refraction of) the hotbed of philosophical and artistic movements slowly smothered by socialist realism in early 20th century Russia (and adjacent), prompted first by our protagonist staring into a black square and imagining it as a void-gate to be ensorcelled into a third dimensional passage away from the physical realm. In the mind of our protagonist, a disenfranchised extremist and an artist, a glance at an avant-garde painting inspires the creation of a Wagnerian opus, a series of events which lead him down an obsessive and tumultuous pursuit unto madness. I’ve not read Ruben Wijlacker‘s novel ‘De protodood in zwarte haren‘ but I can generally prompt its events for the sake of the most recent duo of albums from Utrecht, Netherlands-based avant-garde/progressive post-black metal quartet GREY AURA who’ve put this story to music in full thanks to this second half and finale. The band’s third full-length album and finest hour thus far ‘Zwart Vierkant: Slotstuk‘ may be a continuation and companion to a first part but it is yet the grand crescendo, an even more accomplished showing from this remarkably concieved arc of concept albums.

Grey Aura are a pleasure to write about for the sake of their work being increasingly experimental, rendered to a modern standard, and crafted to a relatively sophisticated result after years of conceptualization. Theirs is a neon-glowing thread clipped from the ongoing trials of pagan/atmospheric black metal project Folkstorm beyond 2009 via a very young Ruben Wijlacker who’d spent the last of his teenaged years developing that band before focusing on this one in 2010 alongside conspirator Tjebbe Broek. Their style entertained a depressive, atmospheric gait before shifting toward abstract arte-black music, avant-garde selections that look beyond noveau black metal in ever-changing streams of dissonant, improvised and performative pieces. I’d done such an extensive parlay through their discography in review of their second LP (‘Zwart Vierkant‘, 2021) that I will defer to those paragraphs beyond a suggestion of that album being an all-pro event, an imaginative muse enacted with incredible detail to its concept. Listening to the previous album is absolutely necessary if you are the sort of listener prone to read the lyrics, the associated novel, and/or look into the high-brained work put into the themes (half of a novel per album) which continue and conclude with ‘Zwart vierkant: Slotstuk‘ (read: ‘Black Square: Finale‘). Otherwise if you don’t speak the language or intend to translate the experience and gather what you will the convivance and continuity shared between the two albums’ will be readily apparent and carry you through their dramatic narration.

‘Zwart Vierkant‘ + ‘Zwart Vierkant: Slotstuk‘ offer a dual album experience with each conveying the themes of their associated halves of a novel, a duality rather than a plain sequel event which once again reflects a moderne playwright’s hand in its storytelling just as much as it resembles a progressive metal experience. Through eleven abstract vignettes, irregular windows of genre-agnostic focus are clipped into scenes that play in confounding order. The central voice is a shout, one which speaks to the dismay of the idealist and his ventures through avant-garde art’s disruptive, or, corrupting effects. Rather than receive either album as a “guitar” record I would encourage visualization of performance whenever possible as the composers have crafted wildly textural, quickly panned-through scenes more than they have songs, the physicality of some performances seem important with emphasis on the rhythm section. While this ever-morphing distemper might have some folks agitated by the ADHD-level twitch from point to point this effect is typically suited to the intent of the song/album where the passion of an artist and a delve into the surreal are well illustrated.

The interruptive rush and genre-breaking wilderness of Dødheimsgard, the rhythmic dramatism of Furia, and some interest in post-black/dissonant movement from the obscure and daringly moderne Netherlands circles of the last decade are still key rhythmic guideposts of Grey Aura‘s style. If you are a fan of Hail Spirit Noir, Void (U.K.) and Laster there’ll be something here you’re likely to connect with on a eclectic/rhythmic level. This time around the focus is even moreso on presenting a variety of tones and not only interjections of surprising formae, giving a great deal of this responsibility to an intense rhythm section which once again includes bassist Sylwin Cornielje of Laster and now brings former Severe Torture drummer Seth van de Loo into the fold as the main new addition here. You’ll feel the effects of this new conjoinment right away as occasional strike of a pinging snare adds a visceral clangor for effect, adding steel-tipped whip to the edge of the first several pieces on ‘Zwart vierkant: Slotstuk‘. We take this self-flagellation in stumbling gait as any point of entrance here should be stymying.

There is a mathematical, right-angled sweep through the the first several moments of opener “Daken als keizen” as Grey Aura‘s guitarists rattle out psychic exhaust, a noxious slap of bravado before the spoken narrative crawl of the piece zooms our lens back into the action. It is a complex verve in some sense and a compelling rhythmic experience to make an entrance with but there is a sort of amnesia that sets in when first approaching any non-linear, tangent prone album such as this. The detail level is incredibly fine and not only in terms of performance and arrangement but the production value ensures no actor is positioned out of earshot or placed in a non-essential role. When all of this syncs up in the early moments of I’d found ‘Zwart vierkant: Slotstuk‘ was kind of a jam, bopping through its aggression at high-rate activity for the first two pieces.

Use of dual acoustic guitars and voice as rhythmic accompaniment serves to facet “Een uithangbord van wanhoop” in mind as a moment of transcendence, elevation or realization as the song’s intro provides some delirious respite before the buzzing, hypnotic groove can fire off and streak through its remaining five or so minutes. The ranting peak of this song is a real highlight on the album but one that is just as soon outdone by the standout “Opgehangen afgrond” which should naturally catch your ear on every pass through. The bopping break into its first groove around ~38 seconds in, a thrashing and skittering prog-metal trip might be one of my favorite moments on the album ’til the whispered, fusion flavored lounge arrives ~1:54 minutes in and extrudes an angrier shouted segment beyond its transition. Despite the piece being linear with no recall on its biggest moments it still has a direction which compels, and though there is no turning back in terms of the arrangement the flow through manages to pack one great idea after another into an immersive uptempo throttle toward the endpoint. While the pacing of the album doesn’t stick to this pace for its duration this is the heated core of the experience from my point of view.

The real boon a band like Grey Aura brings to modern post-black metal progressivism and suggested avant-garde pathways is a sense for extended or even reactive grooves which for me place the experience more squarely in the progressive music realm even if it is clearly presented on extreme rhythmic terms. The tangled and bounding “De stem, nu als zeeboezem” in particular stood out to me as representative of the focus found on the second half of the album, an erratic piece driven by tense movement which is enriched by strong rhythm section presence. I’d emphasize the its bassline as a point of darting and dodging focus, providing its most pensive and immersive movement in the last third of the song. I am never a fan of interludes bookending songs on metal albums, especially in the second half where the deeper cuts should be floating out easy but I appreciate that each of the last several pieces counts towards finishing its story. We do reach a compellingly unhinged place with closer “Slotstuk” where cascading contrapuntal (inspired) dual guitar runs and discordant refrains create a slurry beneath drum fills and shouted outbursts. The silence that hits beyond ~3:08 minutes in doesn’t lead us on a trail to a satisfying endpoint for my own taste but the slow-to-rise ghostly wailing and frantic scrambling groove that plays us out offers a purgatorial point of rest, an eerie reveal which’d felt anticlimactic on my end.

Where we end our journey through the mind of the madness-stricken protagonist is firmly staring into a void. I could generally relate after each engaged full listen, generally in awe of the tempo map of this album and how little repetition was used in its stormed-out finesse. While there are bursts of memorable ideas and a few great riffs all flows past in the hands of very capable musicians, that is to suggest that even after dozens of spins through ‘Zwart vierkant: Slotstuk‘ I was left admiring the performances and yearning to hear the run through the gamut moreso than any one particular song. Having spent considerable time with both records tasked with telling this story of course it is a brainy, art school kinda prospect on paper as a clash of interests in abstract art, art history, philosophy, and extreme metal but these subjects all meld brilliantly as full-featured storytelling. I’d reiterate that the concept/theme and narrative are an essential part of this experience, as is some exploration of the previous LP, but even if checking this out in passing most fans of avant-garde black metal should appreciate the acrobatically achieved rhythmic sensibility of the greater thread achieved herein. A high recommendation.

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