PENITENT - Roses by Chaos Spawned
- Artikel-Nr.: 1659
definitely one of the best PENITENT albums !
With ROSES BY CHAOS SPAWNED they finally turn back to their roots : Orchestral classical music coupled with vocals and apocalyptic lyrics. After their last two albums on DRAENOR / NAPALM had been more instrumental / spoken word like, you will hear this time (sung) sonoric vocal parts by Andrew Goldmine, supported by heavenly female vocals of Ellen White . A well succeeded combination of classic, dramatic vocal parts and frightening apocalyptic atmospheres . Cover artwork by Mike & Mark Riddick . This vinyl version comes with one different track (not available on the CD ) and with four colour cover . Mit ihrem neuen Album < Roses by Chaos Spawned> kehren ENITENT wieder zu ihren Wurzeln zurück : Orchestrale KLASSIK gepaart mit apocalyptischen Lyrics . Nachdem die Vorgängeralben mehr instrumental / spoken word mäßig anzusehen waren, werden die sonorigen Gesang-Parts von Karsten Hamre diesmal durch weibliche Vocals ergänzt (A Bleeding Heart) . Eine gelungene Kombination aus Klassik, sprachlicher Dramaturgie , Melodiebögen und erdrückender Endzeitstimmung. -----------------------Biography by by Stanislav Ivanoff--------------------------- "What kind of emotions guide us when we feel the loss of hope and the whole life seems to be nothing but a mournful bridge over a river of tears? One got to live his life, and bear all the pain and sorrows, sadness and depression. Fatal for the majority, these dark emotions may become the pleasure for the others and give them power to survive. The punishment will come and everybody will be punished one way or another. To await or to undergo this punishment is to be a PENITENT. It all started in 1994, when Karsten Hamre, the founder and the mastermind of PENITENT, was obsessed by the idea of combining his poetry with the music, in order to create more powerful atmosphere than one could get by only reading his poems. These poems, emanated from the shadowside of life, reflected his thoughts and visions, which came from deep within the soul and mind. They dealt with themes and topics such as life and death, pain and torture, sorrow and depression. Acclaimed as "mad poetry", all of them indeed had deep sense, however unreachable to an average human being. It's obvious that the music also should be not a kind of regular music, but a kind of musical Art, growing on people and becoming something special to each and one of us, in our own way. And Karsten Hamre fully succeeded his goal by creating such unique musical act, recognized as PENITENT. Not long after the creation, Asbjørn Log joined the band. Together they made the material for the band's first and only demo tape, which was recorded at Eternal Damnation studio and released in March 1995. This demo received very good response, and as the result the band got offers from the several labels, from which the well-known Swedish Cold Meat Industry was chosen. The band's debut album "Melancholia"was released in 1996. It was the album of sad and sombre, but majestic synth music, which together with the spoken poetry awoke the most dark and depressive feelings. During the summer of `96 PENITENT left Cold Meat Industry. In August 1996 PENITENT signed for two albums on Draenor Productions, a division of Napalm Records in Austria. During November Karsten Hamre spent his time at Sans & Samling studio and recorded the second PENITENT album "The Beauty Of Pain", which represented a drastic step forward for the band. The synth sounds were largely replaced by the piano, and the songwriting reached an utterly spellbinding level of development. Most of the music was written by Asbjørn Log, except the final track which was written by Karsten Hamre, as well as all the poems were written by him too. Not everyone could see the beauty which walks alone with darkness, a beauty that is both attractive and fascinating in a thousand different ways. The title "The Beauty of Pain" is a metaphor, a way of underlining a deeper meaning, which here is used to illustrate that pain can be beautiful. One has to see it as a unity and not as two separate words. Beauty can be seen as well as experienced, in the changes of autumn, when the leaves slowly change colour and fall from the branches. Nature holds many beauties, but beauty can also be harsh and in that way it often manifests itself through sorrow, grief, depression and pain. The magical and mystical atmosphere of Norwegian nature always had an enormous influence on Karsten Hamre, and was the source of inspiration to most of his works. "The Beauty of Pain" was released by Draenor Productions in February 1997 and there is absolutely no doubt, that this work of Neo-Classical Art, already had become a real classic of our times. At about this time Asbjørn Log left the band, and Karsten Hamre became the sole member of PENITENT again. In the time hereafter the debut album "Melancholia" was re-released by the German label Prophecy Productions both on CD and picture disk LP. They came with different artwork and the CD edition had 3 bonus tracks, which were taken from the debut demo of the band. New compositions were made and in late April 1997 he started to record the third album. It has been entitled "As Life Fades Away" and was finally released in January 1998. On this album, which consists of six instrumental tracks, the music of PENITENT develops in mostly classical direction, heavily influenced by the late Baroque period, when court/chamber music was at its height of popularity. During the second half of 1997 some instrumental remixes, three taken from "Melancholia" ("Veien", "The Undertaker" and "Det Sorte Tjern") and three from "The Beauty Of Pain" ("Into The Great Inferno", "A Mournful Bridge Over A River Of Tears" and "Necropolis") were recorded along with two previous unreleased tracks. They were planned to be released as a split tape with ARCANE ART, which is another project of Karsten Hamre, but the re-mixes has remained unreleased. In October 1998 Karten Hamre decided to sign the contracts offered to him from Dark Vinyl Records, for a new album releases both of his bands PENITENT and ARCANE ART on their Memento Mori label. On the 12th of January Karsten Hamre entered Mansion Studio at his native Stavanger to record the 4th PENITENT album "Roses by Chaos Spawned". The recording session was completed when the album was finished mastered on January 22nd 1999. This time the vocal parts were done not by the author of the poems Karsten Hamre, but by the new vocalist Mark Andrew Goldfine of AMIDST THE LEAFS and ALONE WITH BLADES whose expressive manner of performance fitted the music very well. Besides him, there is a guest vocal appearance by Ellen White on "A Bleeding Heart of Desire". The music on this album is beautiful, sublime and mournful. In general it is prevailed by the variety of orchestral samples, but also piano and organ are taking the leading roles in several compositions, just like it was on "The Beauty of Pain" album, yet on the track "In Mortal Fear" one can even hear the drums similar to those which were used on the debut "Melancholia". With this new PENITENT work Karsten Hamre proves one more time that he is a real artist, for whom the Art is the only and the true way to express the deepness of the emotions he carries inside. Art is a struggle to penetrate as deep as possible into ones soul, and when performing your chosen form of Art you have to work hard to transform your emotions into an everlasting vision, which reflects the true atmosphere of you, your soul and your own personality."