Kurokuma announce new album ‘Of Amber And Sand’
KUROKUMA have announced a new album!
Titled Of Amber And Sand, the upcoming album from the Sheffield-based sludge metal band is the follow-up to 2022’s Born Of Obsidian, and is scheduled to be released in August this year, via self-release.
Whilst Born Of Obsidian explored the ancient history of Mesoamerican civilisations, the upcoming album is based on the concept of time, with each track exploring a different facet of temporality and eternity, with probes to their significance to creation, civilisation and the experience of being human.
Musically, the band have drawn influence from the instruments, melodies and rhythms of the Middle East/Balkans on this release. Guitarist and vocalist, Jake Mazlum, explains, “in terms of my own relationship with the new musical elements, it’s complicated. I’m an Orthodox Christian from the Muslim world, an immigrant to the UK, and a more recent immigrant to the Balkans, where ironically I feel like I fit in culturally more than anywhere else. Much of my family is ethnically Armenian but now resides in Turkey, where I spent the first few years of my life there.
My relationship with these ‘ethnic’ musical styles is a mix of appreciation for what they are, a familiarity due to their imposition in my life in various ways, and a very conscious detachment from the cultures, places and values that – like all art – deeply informs them.”
Alongside the announcement of the new album, KUROKUMA have released a new song from the upcoming album; I Am Forever. Speaking about the new song, drummer Joe Allen says, “this track is a mantra on meditation that opens up this concept album on time. We challenged ourselves to write something that worked even with repeated lyrical phrases, so it truly felt like a mantra. Jake had been listening to a lot of NAILBOMB and KORN for the riffs, and then our mate, Babak stepped up with a blazing baglama solo. It starts off the album with a bang.”
Listen to I Am Forever here:
Also, you can view both the track list and artwork for the upcoming new album below:
Track List:
- I Am Forever
- Sandglass
- Death No More
- Clepsydra
- Fenjaan
- Bell Tower
- Neheh
- Timekeeper
- Crux Ansata
- Awakening
- Chronoclasm
Of Amber And Sand is set for release on August 9th via self-release. Pre-orders are available now and can be purchased here.
For more information on KUROKUMA like their official page on Facebook.
