(To mark its release, Andy Synn has the pleasure and the privilege of writing about the fourth, and final, album from Eryn Non Dae.)
There is no way of talking about the new album from NCS-approved post-genre provocateurs Eryn Non Dae. without addressing the unexpected passing of their long-time vocalist, Mathieu Nogues Boisgard, in 2023.
Something like that would devastate any band, and I’m sure we all would have understood if the group had chosen to call it a day then and there in order to spend time processing their grief and dealing with their loss.
But the one small mercy amidst this tragedy, however, was that Boisgard had not only already set a title, Disunited States of Anima, and completed the lyrics for the record, but had also demo’d his vocal parts in a way which meant they could – if necessary – be used to complete the album.
And that’s exactly what the band decided to do, honouring his memory by dedicating the last couple of years to slowly, and diligently, bringing his final work (and his final words) to life.
That, however, is also the last time I am going to mention this particular aspect of the record’s development, as while it is undoubtedly important context I’d like to think that Boisgard wouldn’t have wanted the album to be defined by the tragic circumstances surrounding its creation but rather judged solely on its own musical merit.
Which is exactly what I’m going to do.
Acknowledging that some of you may not be familiar with the band’s previous work (though this interview from back in 2018 is a great way to learn about them and what makes them tick) I wanted to start off the main body of this review by giving you a simple and easily digestible summation of who Eryn Non Dae. actually are.
But (especially in light of the ways in which Disunited States of Anima refines and redefines the focus of their sound) that proved easier said than done, as one thing the band have never been is “simple”.
Suffice it to say then that END‘s particular brand of “post-genre” Metal has long sought to balance the expression of raw emotion (the vocals in particular have always given them a rougher, more Hardcore-tinged edge than some of their more “polished” peers) with the band’s increasingly creative ambitions and love of unorthodox experimentalism, resulting in a sound which – by drawing deeply from a wide variety of influences and inspirations, from Cult of Luna to clipping., from Meshuggah to Massive Attack, from Dälek to Deftones to Godflesh to Tool – continues to thumb its nose at such crude categorisations as “Post Metal” or “Mathcore”.
And while every one of their albums has sought to expand and explore the potential of this hybrid amalgam of the organic and the electronic, the visceral and the ethereal, it should probably come as no surprise to learn that the band’s final album pushes things even further.
Whether that’s the claustrophobic weight and pulsing atmospheric pressure of “Zugzwang” – which, despite the decision to strip back the guitars this time around, manages to be one of the heaviest tracks of their career in many ways, with the record’s rich, resonate bass tone and oppressive electro-ambient aura expanding to add even more depth and palpable presence to the band’s ambitious audio tapestry – or the strobing, subliminal synths and hypnotically repetetive rhythmic hooks of “Get Away”, it’s clear that the group have left no stone unturned, no idea off the table, as they draw closer and closer to the end of their career.
Even at their most “orthodox” – “Nemesis” being perhaps the track most closely aligned with the prevailing “Post Metal” zeitgeist – they resist easy classification, aligning more closely with their “progressive” peers and predecessors more by a process of convergent evolution than conscious decision, while the more unorthodox soundscapes of a song like “Eidiya” (sound it out) serve more as a sort of unfolding sonic canvas for Boisgard’s distinctive existential and socio-political meditations, with lines like “it seems to me that we all get confused, all indulged in small battles individually / Missing the all point, the essential collectively” and “The explanation of the thing is not the thing itself / The explanation of what we are… is not ourselves” being punctuated by an increasingly intense refrain of “All I know is that I know nothing!” as the track builds to its cathartic climax.
Perhaps the best way to approach Disunited States of Anima then, whether you’re new to the band or a long-term fan, is simply to expect the unexpected and keep a keen ear out for those aspects of the album – like the intricate, progressive drum-work which underpins both the booming bombast and brooding negative space of “Gaïa” or the ever-present undercurrent of simmering, slow-burning anxiety ebbing and flowing beneath the groaning, gargantuan grooves of “None Shall Be Spared” (whose absolutely humongous finale serves as a welcome reminder that, no matter what happens, Eryn Non Dae. are still more than capable of bringing the heavy) – which serve to further define and develop the group’s sound towards its logical end point.
And, indeed, the band’s fourth (and final) album does eventually reach its end… as all things must… with the cinematic sonic chaos and pulsating, post-apocalyptic ambience of “Shut All Down”, whose shimmering, shuddering soundwaves combine, crescendo, and then collapse in a way which leaves all the tension built up over the previous forty-two-ish minutes cruelly unresolved, its many questions unanswered and incomplete, and the group’s story ultimately unfinished in a way which, paradoxically, feels like the only possible ending.
Which, one must imagine, was precisely the band’s intention, as while this may not have been the ending that Eryn Non Dae. would have chosen for themselves they have definitely/definitively/defiantly risen to the occasion to produce a piece of undeniable, uncompromising, art which defines both who they are and who they were, from birth to death, from alpha to omega, and everything in between.