Ambra – Remnant
Self-released – 2025
Metal, Stoner, Rock, Prog, Alternative
Rated: ****
The few that follow the HiVe might know that I love Slovenia and Ljubljana and that I always keep my ear to the ground for bands from that region. And yes, the great Jan Kozel from the amazing Jegulja and earlier magical Carnaval is detrimental to that love, me discovering those bands and him using up every drummer available in Ljubljana for his projects. Down the street from him lives Robi Rep from alternative metal band Ambra and so far he has resisted the nightly howls from Kozel to join one of his projects. And we are glad he did, cause the new Ambra album Remnant is a stunning piece of heavy rock! Metal, alternative, progressive with stoner touches. “Influenced by Mastodon, Tool, Deftones, Gojira, Clutch and Chelsea Wolfe…” And those influences are definitely audible in some way or other… But rest assured, they make it completely their own!
Formed in 2015, they released their first full-sized album Cor in 2019. A great debut, but for the new Remnant, they’ve enlisted mixing help from Ben McLeod from All Them Witches, who also adds a wonderful guitar solo on the third track Void. And then there’s that trumpet on fourth track Timeless, that drifts along like ghost notes across a long lost battlefield… Those trenches situated in a once quiet street somewhere in Ljubljana, where, for the past ten years, five musicians gathered like craftsmen in a workshop, shaping something heavy, intricate and wickedly beautiful…
And then they burst forth out of that workshop as the Ambra five they are now. No longer the instrumental project that began its journey, the songs have matured, became more daring and one can safely state that the sketches they started with have become beautiful sculptures, destined to stand the test of time. They’ve chiseled their sound into an ageless form and much of it feels hard to explain. As if you are trying to describe this wonderful dream the morning after…
But as we try to remember all the weight, the kaleidoscopic colors, the shifting shapes, we immediately get lost again in the wonderful world they created. Their music veers between prog, alternative, stoner textures, and wisps of psychedelia. Take Arcadia 404, slowly awakening, before bursting open completely. Vocals trembling with emotion, guitars heaving forward in thick waves and a rhythm section that pounds like a heartbeat that’s almost unable to control itself. It sounds tense and coiled, almost moving forward on the silences between the notes more than the rhythm itself. And this is something they continue to do throughout the album.
Shaping songs like an M C Escher drawing, tilting and twisting the structures, and always with absolute precision. And at the center of this ever shifting landscape, stands vocalist Jakob Rejec, whose voice cuts through the density like a blade of glass, a scalpel, opening up the composition and showing its spine. Remnant lasts for an hour, and every minute begs to be heard over and over. And you will keep discovering more and more. Ambra have definitely out done themselves, they have forged something powerful and unpredictable. Something where you can lose every part of yourself in… Over and over, until there's nothing left...
(Written by JK)
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