Pothamus Conjure Pensive Tribalesque Sludge in “Viso”
~Doomed & Stoned Debuts~
By Billy Goate
Some of the more remarkable bands I've chanced upon lately have come from the Kingdom of Belgium (something we took care to document in last year's Doomed & Stoned in Belgium compilation). Atmospheric sludge/post-metal outfit POTHAMUS are the latest to emerge from the heavy underground, with a full-length album, 'Raya' (2020), slated for winter release. And let me tell you: my third eye has been raging to this one all week!
Weeks ago, the band revealed the nomadic opening chapter of Raya. "Orath" is a striking tone poem which, the band says, "represents the genesis of the Earth, portraying the primary creation within the band’s own mythology. Rather than a cosmogonic myth in which the earth is created ‘ex nihilo,’ Orath expresses the coming-into-being of earthly matter as a process of transformation: a continual development of what already exists."
Because I love the fact Pothamus give us a backstory to get invested in, I'm going to get all nerdy and share more of the lore:
On ‘Orath’ Pothamus contemplates the trajectory of nature as cyclical and eternal, rather than linear. As nature dies when winter emerges, it carries the seeds of spring in its demise. New life feeds on death in a cycle that repeats itself eternally, without beginning or end, necessitating the destruction of that which came before. The band recognized this repetitive reoccurrence of life and light in the Great Fire-ritual of Bouge (Namur), where the video clip for ‘Orath’ was filmed.
In primitive religions, fire -- emblem of the sun -- was believed to exert a profound influence on weather and vegetation. The Great Fire-ritual of Bouge thus animates ‘Orath’ with personal impressions of Belgian folklore. Lit mid February, the fire announces the reappearance of spring, and is said to be a tradition in the region for over 1.000 years. It marks a moving moment when nature will wake up from its winter slumber. In the spirit of folklore superstition, embers and ashes from the Great Fire were sold at auctions and bought by farmers. Spread in the fields, it was said they would provide good harvests.
Pothamus - Orath
How's that for a starter? "Viso" is the second chapter of Raya and is emblematic of "the birth of Man and paraphrasing the anthropogenic chapter in the band’s own mythology. In this subsequent stage, Pothamus ponders the primordial origins of Man. Not simply as born on this earth, but as born out of and from this earth."
Obsessed with myth and meaning, Pothamus take us even further down the rabbit hole:
One could interpret this quite literally, as astrobiologist Lewis Dartnell states that “each of us is literally made of the Earth, as is all life on the planet”. The water in our body, the carbon in the organic molecules of our cells, the salt in our sweat and tears, the calcium in our bones, and the iron in our blood “all eroded out of the rocks of the Earth's crust; as the sulphur of the protein molecules in our muscles was once spewed out by volcanoes”. The particles conceiving the cosmos are also found within us.
In a more spiritual and metaphysicist sense, this awareness probes our relationship with the Earth. In ‘Viso’, the idea is thus put forth that nature is not merely around us, as the implicit but pervasive dualistic credo of the 19th century Enlightenment proclaimed. There is not a ‘natural world’ that is ‘out there’ from which we can withdraw. Nature is within us, as we are within nature. In its most abstract and general sense, ‘Viso’ implies an absolute interconnectedness with our natural surroundings. A total refutation of the duality between self and non-self: We are the Earth.
Today, Doomed & Stoned is pleased to bring you "Viso" ahead of the December 4th release of Raya, an album that takes the listener on a ghostly interdimensional trip charged with primordial mist and ire. As Pothamus' dreamy landscape unfurls, the mood shifts like a plume of rising smoke. Meditative, unsettling, frantic, mystical, triumphant -- all could be used to describe the journey. Get the album on CD and vinyl via Belgian label Consouling Sounds (pre-order here). For fans of Om, Nibiru, Clouds Taste Satanic.
Give ear...
Pothamus - Viso
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