IKARIE - Arde

So how ambitious am I about reviewing all releases which were released and bought by me during the previous twelve months?

I'll still write about a couple of 2023 albums I only just got recently or which I am still waiting for to arrive. And because I'll omit two live recordings, I feel are already "checked" since they made it into my TOP 7 live albums of the year (Pharoah Sanders Quartet and Dool) I think there's actually only one long-neglected release left to cover.

So here we go!

IKARIE - Arde (transparent beer vinyl LP) (2023)

While their Portuguese brethren Sinistro are still collecting themselves for their long-awaited return, another Iberian band which merges crushing Doom with Post Metal and sings in their respective mother tongue instead of the English standard setting emerges from Spain.

Actually if your skills in in both groups' languages are as underdeveloped as mine you probably wouldn't doubt it for a second if someone told you that Ikarie song titles like "Santa Sangre", Surcos (Ciutat Morta)" or "Flores En El Asfalto" would refer to material from Sinistro.
And even musically with the heavy deep end of the sludgy bass, the bombastic slow drumming, some beautiful clean guitar, piano and synth interludes and textures and even a faint folkloristic influence here and there you cannot deny that there are undoubtly a lot of parallels.

The most obvious difference however is that Ikarie's vocals are male and very Metal, either lending the songs on "Arde" a sinister Death Metal / Funeral Doom vibe or underlining their unhinged loud Cult of Luna bombast. So ultimately the Spaniards are much more than just a great placeholder in the absence of Sinistro, but really an amazing overwhelming Doom powerhouse with a fantastic balance between darkness, beauty, hammering in gargantuan riffs and sprinkling them with compelling atmosphere.

One of the tracks relying most on the latter is the soundtrack-ish title track "Arde", a rather short but all the more noticeable piece, which marks the album's only use of English with samples of poignant feminist speech, before the album goes into its longest most grandiose composition "Titane II".
After that the record has one of the most wonderful endings I've heard on a Metal record for a while. The final pure piano piece here is just heart-achingly beautiful.

All in all I'm yet to discover any weakness on this amazing release, which I would easily put at least on the same level as my other recent Post Doom favorites by Dwaal and Bees Made Honey In The Vein Tree  (We're not up there with The Keening yet, but actually not that horribly far away either.).

Since the artwork and vinyl colour (come on, why do we have to call this "transparent beer"?) are also great to look at I'd say that Ikarie and Avantgarde Music have done a perfect job! Goth Post Doom Death excellency.