Arenna ~ Given to Emptiness (2015)
This being the band's newest release since 2011, "Given to Emptiness" is more of a thinking man's stoner rock album. Given to spaced out, hypnotic jams instead of loud and brash party songs. While both styles have their high points, this is the route they chose, and it was the right one for them. Arenna's latest effort is forty-seven minutes of pure stoner bliss, and while the ten minute opener is a pretty long track to kick things off, I don't think it really would of worked as well anywhere else. With the band moving in between crushing stoner rock, and a more mellow, psychedelic styling so seamlessly, the album can almost feel like one long song, or maybe that's just how lost you find yourself once you really let the sound envelop you. When that happens, those forty-seven minutes seem like seven minutes, time becomes a foreign concept. Some press I've seen about this album have praised "Drums for Sitting Bull", praise it does deserve as it's a great song, it just wasn't my pick of the litter. For my personal taste, "The Pursuer" tended to push all the right buttons. With the first half of the track focusing on the small nuances of the soundscape they're trying to immerse you in, and creating atmosphere. They use the second half to fill that atmosphere up with powerful riffs and a massive vocal performance, in a huge crescendo on top of stellar bass and drum rhythms that are a powerful underlying current over the course of the whole album. The album made it's official release May 7th on Nasoni Records, so it's already been out for a little while, but you can still pick up vinyl and cds directly from the band's webstore.
~Skip
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