Released: 2024
Genre: Sludge, Progressive metal
Sounds Like: Neurosis, Gojira, SAVER
Homeland: Sheffield, UK
What makes Of Amber and Sand elite and sit atop OHMs Peak?
Of Amber and Sand pummels the listener with a barrage of sludge, interspersed with captivating progressive elements
The vocals by Jake and Zakk exude a sludge-infused angry vibe, their harmony is flawless
The production is perfect for this style of music. It's not too polished and the bass is absolutely tremendous
Kurokuma is venturing into new territories with their incorporation of sludge, making this album stand out from the typical sludgy sound. By blending elements of progressive metal and hints of industrial music, they are pushing the genre forward
Track Listing: 1. I Am Forever 4:50
2. Sandglass :44
3. Death No More 6:52
4. Clepsydra :45
5. Fenjaan 3:56
6. Bell Tower 1:02
7. Neheh 2:20
8. Timekeeper :34
9. Crux Ansata 5:51
10. Awakening :24
11. Chronoclasm 10:26
Dive deeper into Of Amber and Sand with our Q&A with drummer Joe E. Allen of Kurokuma.
OHMs Peak: Of Amber and Sand is an absolute onslaught of sound. It is both a punch in the gut as well as a soothing massage. How has your sound evolved since 2014 and where do you draw your influences from?
Joe E. Allen: I think we truly found our sound over the last few years, and it took a lot of digging. At the start we had the idea to combine doom, sludge and stoner with something more world music-esque. Initially it was quite tribal, shall we say, and definitely leant more heavily on doom than where we are now. As we've gone on we've been able to chip away and smooth the edges on that whole concept and come up with something that makes sense and is fully integrated, and is us. Elements of black and death metal have come in, and then we've explored Mesoamerican and Middle Eastern sounds specifically. It took all the experiments on various EPs for us to feel like we were ready for an album, or two.
It feels like we've also moved away from being part of a scene so much. We don't feel too connected to one right now, especially as two of us live outside of the UK. That's probably helped us detach and be in our own space completely.
And I'm glad you picked up on that duality. We've always wanted to have the power and heaviness, but not lose the melody and the beauty. Having both is important to us.
OHMs Peak: There is so much great contrast on this album. Mazlum and Wells duelling vocals help deliver the chaos throughout the album. The closing track ‘Chronoclasm’ is a juggernaut 10 minute masterpiece. Take us through the making of this track and the message it sends.
Joe E. Allen: Chronoclasm is something we wrote back in 2017. We were more in doom mode then and it shows on this track. When I hear it, I think of George, our old bassist. He's not in the band anymore but we were talking just the other day. He's going round Europe with his sound system at the moment.
In Chronoclasm it takes a while before the guitar comes in with a proper strummed chord - before that it's mainly texture and noise from Jake, so the start was very much me on drums and George on bass. He had a really unique and in-your-face bass sound, with gear like the Kaoss Pad and a synth pedal, and we wanted to let that breathe at the start. I'll be honest, what we have on this new album is a bit of a different bass sound because it's a different person now with different gear.
My drums were meant to sound almost like the heartbeat of the universe, especially in the verses.
The track gets into the chorus, where it's again me and the bass playing something like a dubstep rhythm. That probably reflects a lot of the music George and I used to listen to around 2017. Then the guitar comes in properly and the song levels up.
The whole thing is very considered and layered. Even now I really like how glacial it is and the downbeat is obscured by where we place the various notes. It feels like a lot of rhythmic ideas are at play. I still love how the guitar and bass trade notes in the second chorus and you get that left and right separation. Then it's the big riff at the end that was meant to feel like the collapse of the universe, or something along those lines.
Jake's lyrics relate to time, but they feel pretty cosmic, which goes with the sounds. It's a very zoomed out, philosophical and abstract take on what time itself is. There are references to Ozymandias by Shelley, and that's something we again chose to reference in the liner notes to the album. That poem seems to sum up a lot of what we were going for on this album.
It was actually from this track that the time theme began and then spread to the rest of the album.
OHMs Peak: What band would you love to tour with? That would most compliment your sound?
Joe E. Allen: Oranssi Pazuzu probably. Or our friends in Lowen. We actually want to make that second one happen some day.
4. We see the album art was created by Mila K. It’s a wild and dark classic landscape. Take us through the selection and tie-in with the album art and your sound.
Joe E. Allen: It was a lot like how we write music. Jake came up with the raw materials and I helped shape it into its final result, with Mila of course.
Jake found these images from The Eyes of the Cat by Alejandro Jodorowsky and Moebius, and we thought they looked great and that the style would suit the album. The way it looked really stark and severe was something we liked, and the yellow/orange colour too, because we knew the album was starting to have a desert sound.
Then Jake found this photo of a mantis trapped in amber and we thought it was a great motif and was somehow relevant to the themes of time on the album. I took that and created this narrative with it, which then led to the album being called 'Of Amber and Sand'. The mantis and amber refer to one single moment, whereas the sand refers to infinity. It's about the duality of it all.
I'm glad you used the word 'classic'. A lot of what we do is meant to feel timeless, or not modern at least. Everything came together in a great package. Mila is amazing to work with. We're pleased with it.
OHMs Peak: How did the name Kurokuma come to form and what’s the meaning/background?
Joe E. Allen: It's the name of a waterfall in Japan where I used to live, Aomori.
Nothing was fitting when we were initially coming up with ideas for names, and then I suggested it and the rhythm and letters of it just seemed to make sense. The meaning is 'black bear', but that's not something that majorly informed the decision to go with it.
Little did we know most people would struggle to pronounce it over the years, which makes me laugh because Japanese is a very phonetic language, at least in Roman characters - you generally say what you see. The worst one is when people say Kurokoma, as if we chose to make a pun on the word coma. You realise most people just can't be bothered to read things properly.
OHMs Peak: Kurokuma is stranded on an island with only a solar powered turn table and majestic powered solar blue tooth speakers. The band collectively can only choose one album. Which album to you agree to?
Joe E. Allen: The safest choice would be something like Those Once Loyal by Bolt Thrower, or maybe even some Limp Bizkit if we wanted to create more of a party island. Or for non metal maybe something by Acid Arab. One of them would do. Jake or me would pick it and then Zakk would probably go along with it haha..
Kurokuma are:
Guitar / vocals: Jake Mazlum
Bass / vocals: Zakk Wells
Drums: Joe E. Allen
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caustic yet beautiful ….brilliant album