Stratum (album)

Last updated
Stratum
Drottnar - Stratum.jpg
Studio album by
Drottnar
ReleasedOctober 13, 2012 (2012-10-13)
Recorded2009–2012, Norway
Genre Christian metal, extreme metal
Length38:26
Label Endtime
Producer Drottnar
Drottnar chronology
Welterwerk
(2006)		Stratum
(2012)
Singles from Stratum
  1. "Lucid Stratum"
    Released: November 8, 2011 [1]

Stratum is the second full-length studio album by the Norwegian Christian extreme metal band Drottnar, initially released on October 13, 2012 through Endtime Productions. A single was released for the album, "Lucid Stratum", on November 8, 2011, and the band went on a four-stop tour with Deuteronomium and Pantokrator in Finland from May 2–5, 2013. The album features a highly technical and complex form of extreme metal, and met with a positive reception from critics.

Christian metal, also known as white metal, Jesus metal or heavenly metal, is a form of heavy metal music usually defined by its message using song lyrics as well as the dedication of the band members to Christianity. Christian metal is typically performed by professed Christians principally for Christians who listen to heavy metal music and often produced and distributed through various Christian networks.

Extreme metal is a loosely defined umbrella term for a number of related heavy metal music subgenres that have developed since the early 1980s. It has been defined as a "cluster of metal subgenres characterized by sonic, verbal and visual transgression".

Drottnar band

Drottnar is a extreme metal band from Fredrikstad, Norway. Formed in 1996, the band has released three albums, Spiritual Battle (2000), Welterwerk (2006), and Stratum, and an EP titled Anamorphosis (2003). The first album was released on UK label Plankton Records. They are currently signed to Swedish label Endtime Productions.

Contents

Background and recording

Sven-Erik Lind performing at Elements of Rock in Uster, Switzerland, 2013, wearing early-20th century military regalia Drottnar-EoR2013-06.jpg
Sven-Erik Lind performing at Elements of Rock in Uster, Switzerland, 2013, wearing early-20th century military regalia

Drottnar formed in Fredrikstad, Norway, in 1996. The band recorded and released two demos, Doom of the Antichrist and A White Realm, both of which were re-mastered and re-released as a compilation, Spiritual Warfare , in 2000. The compilation was described as death/doom and Viking metal. [2] In 2003, the group released an EP, Anamorphosis , and adopted a more minimalist black metal style. [3] A studio album, Welterwerk , followed in 2006, and featured a technical and chaotic sound. [4] Around the time of Welterwerk's release, the band members started wearing early 20th century military regalia in mockery of Nazi and Communist regimes. [5]

Fredrikstad Municipality in Østfold, Norway

Fredrikstad is a city and municipality in Østfold county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Fredrikstad.

Viking metal is a style of heavy metal music characterized by a lyrical and thematic focus on Norse mythology, Norse paganism, and the Viking Age. Viking metal is quite diverse as a musical style, to the point where some consider it more a cross-genre term than a genre, but it is typically seen as black metal with influences from Nordic folk music. Common traits include a slow-paced and heavy riffing style, anthemic choruses, use of both sung and harsh vocals, a reliance on folk instrumentation, and often the use of keyboards for atmospheric effect.

Anamorphosis distorted projection requiring the viewer to occupy a specific point to reconstitute the image

Anamorphosis is a distorted projection or perspective requiring the viewer to occupy a specific vantage point, use special devices or both to view a recognizable image. Some of the media it is used in are painting, photography, sculpture and installation, toys, and film special effects. The word "anamorphosis" is derived from the Greek prefix ana‑, meaning "back" or "again", and the word morphe, meaning "shape" or "form". An optical anamorphism is the visualization of a mathematical operation called an affine transformation. The process of extreme anamorphosis has been used by artists to disguise caricatures, erotic and scatological scenes, and other furtive images from a casual viewer, while revealing an undistorted image to the knowledgeable spectator.

Recording for Stratum began in 2009, which the band announced on Facebook on February 1 of that year. [6] The next day, Drottnar announced the departure of guitarist Bengt Olsson. [7] However, later that year, on August 12, the band announced that Olsson had rejoined Drottnar. [8] Recording continued for the next few years. The album was mastered at Strype Audio by Tom Kvålsvoll. [9] [10]

Facebook Global online social networking service

Facebook, Inc. is an American online social media and social networking service company based in Menlo Park, California. It was founded by Mark Zuckerberg, along with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes. It is considered one of the Big Four technology companies along with Amazon, Apple, and Google.

Promotion and release

A single from the album, "Lucid Stratum", was released on November 8, 2011. [1] On October 13, 2012, the band released Stratum in digital format, as well as a music video for the song "We March". [11] [12] Drottnar held a release party on March 16, 2013 at Elements of Rock in Uster, Switzerland, and announced on March 19 that a few physical copies of Stratum were available before they hit stores. [13] [14] On February 14, 2014, Drottnar released a lyric video for "Cul-De-Sac". [15] [16]

Uster Place in Zürich, Switzerland

Uster is a town and the capital of the Uster District in the Swiss canton of Zürich.

Switzerland federal republic in Central Europe

Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a country situated in western, central, and southern Europe. It consists of 26 cantons, and the city of Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The sovereign state is a federal republic bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland is a landlocked country geographically divided between the Alps, the Swiss Plateau and the Jura, spanning a total area of 41,285 km2 (15,940 sq mi). While the Alps occupy the greater part of the territory, the Swiss population of approximately 8.5 million people is concentrated mostly on the plateau, where the largest cities are to be found: among them are the two global cities and economic centres Zürich and Geneva.

Musical style

Reviewers described the music on Stratum as a highly complex and technical form of extreme metal. HM' s Michael Larson noted that on Stratum, Drottnar continued with the technical playing of the past, and perhaps even became more technical, but balanced this with a "subdued grind and some atonal chord work". [4] André Gabriel of Metal.de described the music as "extreme", melding black metal with a "weird", progressive style, and noted the many tempo changes and intricate song structures. [17] Radio show MLWZ wrote that on the album, Drottnar brings together "elements of technical, black, death, industrial, avant-garde and just about every form of extreme metal one can think of". [10]

<i>HM</i> (magazine)

HM Magazine is a monthly, digital and print on demand publication focusing on hard music and alternative culture of interest to Christians. The magazine states that its goal is to "honestly and accurately cover the current state of hard music and alternative culture from a faith-based perspective." It is known for being one of the first magazines dedicated to covering Christian metal. The magazine's content includes features; news; album, live show and book reviews, culture coverage and columns. HM's occasional "So and So Says" feature is known for getting into artists' deeper thoughts on Jesus Christ, spirituality, politics and other controversial topics.

Black metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include fast tempos, a shrieking vocal style, heavily distorted guitars played with tremolo picking, raw (lo-fi) recording, unconventional song structures, and an emphasis on atmosphere. Artists often appear in corpse paint and adopt pseudonyms.

Death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. It typically employs heavily distorted and low-tuned guitars, played with techniques such as palm muting and tremolo picking, deep growling vocals, aggressive, powerful drumming featuring double kick and blast beat techniques, minor keys or atonality, abrupt tempo, key, and time signature changes, and chromatic chord progressions. The lyrical themes of death metal may invoke slasher film-stylized violence, religion, occultism, Lovecraftian horror, nature, mysticism, mythology, philosophy, science fiction, and politics, and they may describe extreme acts, including mutilation, dissection, torture, rape, cannibalism, and necrophilia.

Touring

On December 1, 2012, Drottnar performed at Metal Night at Fabriken in Alingsås, Sweden. [18] On May 2–5, 2013, Drottnar went on the 20 Years of Holy Metal tour in Finland with Deuteronomium and Pantokrator. The tour made four stops: Tampere, Kuopio, Lahti, and Helsinki. [19]

Alingsås Place in Västergötland, Sweden

Alingsås is a locality and the seat of Alingsås Municipality in Västra Götaland County, Sweden. It had 24,482 inhabitants in 2010.

Finland Republic in Northern Europe

Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a country in Northern Europe bordering the Baltic Sea, Gulf of Bothnia, and Gulf of Finland, between Norway to the north, Sweden to the northwest, and Russia to the east. Finland is a Nordic country and is situated in the geographical region of Fennoscandia. The capital and largest city is Helsinki. Other major cities are Espoo, Vantaa, Tampere, Oulu and Turku.

Deuteronomium (band)

Deuteronomium is a Christian death metal band formed in 1993, Jyväskylä, Finland, one of Finland's earliest and most influential groups in that genre.

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
HM Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [4]
Metal.de6/10 [17]

Stratum met with a positive reception from critics. Michael Larson of HM rated the album four out of five stars, remarking that "Drottnar sure takes their sweet time putting out albums, with 6 or 7 years between full-length releases. This time, it was definitely worth the wait." [4] Larson opined that he liked the band's first release, 2000's Spiritual Battle , but disliked the band's previous album, 2006's Welterwerk , as was "too chaotic". However, in Larson's opinion, "Stratum seems to have taken the best of both those releases and melded them together into a furious sonic fury." [4] He felt that while the band kept its technical playing style, it avoided getting too "chaotic and noisy". [4] He also praised the production quality of the release, dubbing it "stellar". [4] André Gabriel of Metal.de rated the album six out of ten, calling the album intelligently designed and well-played, but not outstanding. [17] Kev Rowland, writing for the Polish radio show MLWZ, stated that he was "incredibly impressed" by the album. He lavished praise on the album's production, describing the sound quality as "incredible, large, loud and incredibly clear and concise so that one can hear just how much the bass is adding in terms of nuance". [10] He concluded that Stratum

is frightening; it is compelling, schizophrenic and all encompassing. This is not music for everyone, as its very nature will push many away, but if you want your music to be extreme yet always maintain a sensibility and power then look no further. The very first time I played this I was incredibly impressed, and repeated plays have only cemented that opinion. This could well be the extreme metal album of the year... [10]

Track listing

No.TitleLength
1."We March"3:24
2."Slave"5:07
3."Cul-De-Sac"3:21
4."Soul Suburbia"7:14
5."Seven Suns Shining"3:21
6."Lucid Stratum"4:23
7."Ersatz"5:53
8."Wolves and Lambs"5:41

Release history

RegionDateLabelFormat
WorldwideOctober 13, 2012Endtime Productions Digital download
March 19, 2013 CD, vinyl

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References

  1. 1 2 "DROTTNAR - http://itunes.apple.com/no/album/lucid-stratum/id478202731?i=478202733&l=nb". Facebook. November 8, 2011. Retrieved June 30, 2014.External link in |title= (help)
  2. ↑ Cranson, David (February 2001). "Drottnar –Spiritual Battle". Cross Rhythms . Cross Rhythms (61). Retrieved July 1, 2014.
  3. ↑ Ryhänen, Pekka (October 16, 2003). "Drottnar - Anamorphosis" (in Finnish). Imperiumi.net. Retrieved July 1, 2014.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Larson, Michael (April 27, 2013). "Drottnar - Stratum". HM . Doug Van Pelt. Retrieved June 30, 2014.
  5. ↑ Wagner, Jeff (2010). Mean Deviation: Four Decades of Progressive Heavy Metal. Bazillion Points Books. pp. 276–27. ISBN   0-9796163-3-6.
  6. ↑ "Recording new album!" . Facebook. February 1, 2009. Retrieved July 1, 2014.
  7. ↑ "Bengt leaves Drottnar" . Facebook. February 2, 2009. Retrieved July 1, 2014.
  8. ↑ "Announcement" . Facebook. August 12, 2009. Retrieved July 1, 2014.
  9. ↑ "Drottnar - Releases". Drottnar.com. Retrieved July 1, 2014.
  10. 1 2 3 4 Rowland, Kev (November 22, 2013). "Drottnar - Stratum". Mały Leksykon Wielkich Zespołów. Artur Chachlowski. Retrieved June 30, 2014.
  11. ↑ C., Taylor (October 13, 2012). "Drottnar – We March". Indie Vision Music. Brandon Jones. Retrieved July 1, 2014.
  12. ↑ Drottnar (October 13, 2012). "DROTTNAR - WE MARCH (OFFICIAL)". YouTube . Retrieved July 1, 2014.
  13. ↑ "DROTTNAR - Timeline Photos". Facebook. March 1, 2013. Retrieved July 1, 2014.
  14. ↑ "After a kick-ass release party in Switzerland..." Facebook. March 19, 2013. Retrieved July 1, 2014.
  15. ↑ C., Taylor (February 15, 2014). "Drottnar – Cul-De-Sac". Indie Vision Music. Brandon Jones. Retrieved July 1, 2014.
  16. ↑ Drottnar (February 14, 2014). "DROTTNAR: Cul-De-Sac (Official Lyric Video)". YouTube . Retrieved July 1, 2014.
  17. 1 2 3 Gabriel, André (October 24, 2013). "Drottnar - "Stratum"". Metal.de (in German). versus: media UG. Retrieved June 30, 2014.
  18. ↑ "Metal Night [en sista gång!]". Facebook . Retrieved July 1, 2014.
  19. ↑ "20 Years of Holy Metal -tour 2.-5.5.2013". Facebook . Retrieved July 1, 2014.
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