Årabrot - Rite of Dionysus

 

 

Årabrot - Rite of Dionysus
Dalapop Records / Pelagic Records – 2025
Rock, Alternative, Wave, Noise, Pop
Rated: ****

The noise from before has turned into an icy gale, a steel gaze that permeates their art. It stares deep into your very being, far into a distance and feels like a brooding mask. For the new album Rite of Dionysus will surely be viewed by many as high art, the touch of pop present since the album that came before, making sure that us common people will certainly feel it as well. It’s the new Årabrot record and it’s riddled with mystery and a wily esoteric touch. Not at all strange, considering it was recorded in their own church studio. The touch of master Alain Johannes can also be felt, turning some of that ice into a vaporous warmth. For he was there, during the initial recording sessions that lead to the 2023 album Of Darkness And Light and this new one, (that features the titletrack of that 2023 album)  and later on again to put the final touches on it. Perhaps lighter than earlier records, Rite of Dionysus seems to watch the human condition from above, sometimes Bowie-esque and always strangely hypnotic. Like that great red wine you sip slowly, it takes time to intoxicate you. But it surely will. It’s that meditative and minimalistic touch that just won’t let go and slowly chants and scours the transcendental landscape to deliver you an island of calm while your consciousness is bombarded by turbulence and mantra like vocals that often pierce and might even wound. Cold or was it a shiver of fear that ran through me, a cut from a knife and blood dripping from the tones that softly slip away… Årabrot deliver beautiful poetry that will race all kinds of different poems through your mind, it riddles their misty atmosphere and will make you want to find that light in the frost of midnight… 

(Written by JK)

Out on August 29th, but the first FOUR singles can be heard right now...



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