Arabrot [Haugesund] / Voices Of Metropolis [Siegen]

Dark-Rock Kjetil Nernes is a survivor. He is, for all intents and purposes, the Norwegian rock band Årabrot, who formed in Haugesund, Norway in 2001. After stalking the blackened, grimey European noise rock underground for years, a rupturing change came in the form of serious illness in 2014.

After contracting a rare and aggressive form of cancer, he nearly died; but the lengthy, painful experience of treatment and recovery gave him the time and space to reconsider his entire life… including his artistic practice. Speaking from the deconsecrated church in Djura, Sweden, where he lives with his wife, the musician Karin Park and their young daughter, he describes how the illness changed everything: “I struggled out of that period of extreme sickness by writing the last album The Gospel (2016).

It was like a big explosion. Because after an explosion you have silence. And in the silence you realise that everything has changed. In that silence, the new record was written. Voices Of Metropolis aus Siegen verbinden die Energie des Alternative Rock mit progressiven Einflüssen und einem gelegentlichen Hang zum Metal.

Eingängige Grooves treffen auf vielschichtige Melodien, kraftvolle Gitarren auf sphärische Klanglandschaften. Dabei darf der Sound auch mal roh, kantig und ungeschliffen sein. Musikalisch bewegt sich die Band zwischen atmosphärischen Passagen, treibenden Rhythmen und härteren Ausbrüchen, ohne sich dabei auf ein bestimmtes Genre festzulegen. Wer Bands wie A Perfect Circle,