Echoes from η Carinae

After about seven years of inactivity, Alrakis come back with basically the same general idea that A1V had on the first album...for better or worse. For those new to the project, Alrakis take Steve Roach influenced ambient music, add gritty guitar fuzz and a sluggish drum track, and call it black metal. It's supposed to appeal to some overlap of fans from the atmospheric black metal camp and the dsbm camp; the former because of the keys and the space theme, and the latter due to the melancholic mood of the music and the slow tempo that a lot of bands in that genre seem to love.

Of course, with an overall lack of riffs, it's difficult to really tag Alrakis as metal at all. Echoes from η Carinae has the dubious advantage over its predecessor in actually being one whole piece of music instead of being splintered into seven parts that might as well be one whole wall of fuzz; and I say dubious because it implies in order to get the whole tale you have to sit through the 52 minutes of this album which is a very difficult task. Though I will say that composition seems to actually have a slightly more obvious sense of movement compared to Alpha Eri. The lead guitar tremoloing actually changes for once.

But at the same time, all the bad things that applied to Alpha Eri are in effect on this album too. The lethargic drum track kills any sense of movement, the fuzz generated by the guitars is not memorable, and almost half the album is straight ambient. While I have no objection to ambient done right, in this album's case it makes the droning guitar noise marketed as black metal seem intrusive. At that point, you might as well commit to just one or the other: either space ambient by the likes of Steve Roach's Structures in Silence, or atmoblack by bands that actually give their music a sense of movement like Midnight Odyssey, Progenie Terrestre Pura, or Mare Cognitum. Whatever your choice, go listen to all of that stuff instead because Alrakis would've been better off if HAL 9000 sabotaged its hibernation pod.

After a 7-year wait, the legendary German atmospheric black metal band, Alrakis, has returned from the dark void of space and has bestowed upon us a new slice of exquisite cosmic black metal that, in my opinion, could be the beginning stages of a cult classic for fans of this interstellar subgenre. Alrakis’ first release, “Alpha Eri”, was great in its self, but the creator, A1V, and his newest guitarist, (N.), have created something really special here. One song, titled “Echoes from Eta Carinae”, is a massive space-laced beast that measures 52:34 minutes long. Being a big fan of the funeral doom subgenre, I have grown very accustomed to very long songs and I usually cultivate much excitement when I encounter a new song over 40 minutes long. Discovering a new long song like this, for me, usually means that a band might have put forth some kind of effort in creating something fresh and enchanting - at least that’s the hope anyways. The question is, can a band create a long ass song that can captivate one’s attention and imagination and not bore them to sleep? Sometimes they succeed. Sometimes they fail. Did Alrakis deliver in creating such a song? Yes, they did indeed, and much more.

The first thing that makes Alrakis’ “Echoes from Eta Carinae” so captivating for me is understanding what kind of cosmic atmosphere they were trying to convey with this song. Being an amateur astronomer myself, I am very familiar with the spellbinding Eta Carinae. If you’re not familiar, then perhaps I can explain what it is real quick. I personally see this song as a literal musical interpretation of what Eta Carinae is and what the “Echoes” are. Eta Carinae, about 7,500 light-years away, is binary star system in the Carina Constellation. The system comprises of two main stars, the primary, named Eta Car A, and the secondary star, named Eta Car B. Eta Car A is a massive unstable leviathan similar to a luminous blue variable star. These volatile stars are over a hundred times massive than our own sun and Eta Car A is about 200 solar masses. Blue variable stars have a relatively short lifespan and end up exploding in a supernova when all their fuel is spent. The resultant explosion usually leaves behind a Black Hole. When Eta Car A explodes, somewhere between now and a million years from now, the supernova will be so bright, observers here on Earth will be able to see the spectacle during the daytime. The secondary star, Eta Car B, is a big mean bastard as well but it’s only about 50 solar masses. So, Eta Car B rotates around Eta Car A in an eccentric orbit and does so once about every 5.5 years. At their closest approach, these two stars get pretty pissed at each other. The gravity of each star tugs and pulls on each other straining the already unstable and tormented primary Eta Car A star. Sometimes their gravitational interactions strip off massive amounts of material from the primary resulting in flare-up similar to a supernova itself. When this happens, the star system becomes one of the brightest objects in the night sky. This happened in the year of 1837 and the flare-up lasted for 21 years. Known as the “Great Eruption”, the cataclysm became almost as luminescent as the brightest star in the night sky, Sirius. Now days, astronomers can detect further evidence of the 1837 eruption by observing a phenonium called “light echoes”. When this eruption occurred over 180 years ago, light from the outburst has been bouncing off neighboring dust clouds ever since. Without any known lyrics at this time to examine over, I am assuming that this song that Alrakis has created is referring to this “light echo” phenonium created by the Eta Carinae 1837 outburst.

The second and most important thing that makes this song and album so captivating is, of course, the music. The song starts out with what I perceive as the outburst or outbursts of Eta Carinae and the following echoes. This echo is eventually accompanied and slowly replaced by a slow symphony of beautiful cosmic soundscapes that drift an atmosphere of total calm and entrancing ambiance over my ears. One can easily envision following the source of the echoes by slowly approaching the Eta Carinae nebula - a kaleidoscope of cold dust clouds, gasses, stars and vibrant colors. At about the 9:30 mark, the guitars, bass, drums and vocals all kick into the atmosphere as you pass into the “Homunculus” cocoon - and their they are - the two demonic leviathans wreaking havoc on the region. As per Alrakis fashion, you will never hear any volcanic black metal style blast beats but, rather, their usual style of slow/mid-paced drumming accompanied by (N.)’s fast-ass melodic rhythm and lead guitar picking. If you’re not familiar with Alrakis’ sound try to imagine a meeting between black metal and funeral doom. A1V’s vocals are about the same as on their previous album - high-pitched black metal type shrieks and wales and the style fits perfectly with the song. Along with the atmosphere of keyboards, they proceed to create symphonic tunes of cosmic solitude, resplendence and inevitable doom. Then around 16:30, you hover near Eta Car A - the primary titan of annihilation and awe. But she is quite now, beautiful as she sleeps soundly but… Eta Car B slowly approaches. Then, suddenly, a violent burst of bright light and deadly radiation explodes across the cosmos and you are thrown light-years away. The “Echoes” of light slowly returns. Do you follow the echoes back to the source or do you retreat like a pansy-assed little bitch? Continuing on, very good. At about 28:05 the strings, drums and vocals returns. This time the vocals of A1V sounds utterly tormented, almost like he is mourning the death of something. At about 32:03, a pained and sorrowful picking of guitars floods in like the lowering of a coffin, containing someone once loved, forever into the cold ground. This is the part where I envision Alrakis’ interpretation of the future death process of Eta Carinae – a vicious upheaval of destruction and true unbridled power unlike anything any of us could possibly imagine… The supernova - an explosion so massive that even 7,500 light-years away from us would glow brightly in the daytime sky and would be brighter than the full moon at night. At about the 40:00-minute mark, the song uses the remaining time to grieve the death of Eta Carinae and explore the aftermath of the calamity with a soft relaxing symphony of beauty and majesty – a damn perfect way to end a damn fantastic and mesmerizing song.

I enjoyed Alrakis’ first album well enough but this newest release of theirs is something special. It’s everything I love in music, long as hell and chucked full of imagination, darkness and beauty – just waves upon waves of crushing atmosphere. You’ll not wish the song to end, literally. The good news is you can play it again. “Echoes from Eta Carinae” is not a song for the distracted, impatient or a rushed listener. Embark with Alrakis and this song when you have 52+ minutes all by yourself. If you’re a fan of space, cosmic, depressive, ambient and atmospheric black metal, this newest album is a must-have. If you were a fan of Alrakis’ first release and, after 7 years, gave up thinking they were done – go get this now you damn fool! Go get it!