More than three years have passed since the release of The Great Adjudication by the Australian band Claret Ash, and even longer since Fragment One of this two-part album first appeared. But the memory of it hasn’t dimmed among those of us who became captivated by it. As our own Andy Synn wrote in a review accompanying our full premiere in April 2018, there’s “a plethora of blackened brilliance on display across the length and breadth of this album”, evoking comparisons to the likes of Wolves In The Throne Room, Der Weg Einer Freiheit, and early-2000s-era Gorgoroth.
The planet has been engulfed in turmoils of unforeseen nature and scope since The Great Adjudication, and it appears that Claret Ash have themselves changed, at least in their line-up, yet The Great Adjudication lives on as a formidable example of riff-heavy aggression melded with soul-stirring melody. As a reminder of what a fine album it was (and is), and perhaps as a sign of something new brewing in the Claret Ash bastion, we’re today presenting a brand new video for a tumultuous yet also captivating track that appeared on Fragment Two of The Great Adjudication — “Like Tears In Rain“.
The song itself is scathing and jolting, delivering searing waves of firebrand intensity married to viscerally powerful propulsion and a harrowing panoply of intense vocal expressions. But the song is multi-faceted, and thus also creates feelings of uplift and grandeur as well as frenzied deliriums of anguish, bursts of spine-slugging groove, moments of sublime melancholy (in which the vocal melody plays a key role), and elements of mystery.
The video, made by Ijumaa Stephenson at Inner Peace Creations, matches the intensity of the music to the intensity of the band’s performance, and connects it to the lyrical themes as well.
The Great Adjudication – Fragment Two is available on vinyl LP, digipack CD, and digital formats from Casus Belli Musica and Beverina Productions via the links below.
DIGITAL:
http://goo.gl/fBhqq8
PHYSICAL:
Casus Belli Musica: http://goo.gl/1Epgga
Beverina Productions: http://goo.gl/di82Yi
CLARET ASH:
https://claretash.bandcamp.com
https://www.instagram.com/claretashband
https://www.facebook.com/claretashband