(written by Islander)
We have been ardent fans of the Swiss metal band Stortregn and interested observers of how the band’s music has significantly evolved over the last 20 years. And so we became quite curious when learning that one of the band’s founding members and (until last year) a steadfast presence in the Stortregn lineup had embarked on a solo project, and even more intrigued to learn that its debut album would be released by Transcending Obscurity Records.
The artist we’re speaking of is the former Stortregn vocalist/guitarist Romain Negro, and he has named this new personal project Apolaustic, which the dictionary tells us is an adjective that describes being wholly devoted to, or concerned with, seeking enjoyment and pleasure.
But as signified by the album’s title — No Plenitude Without Suffering — the music isn’t some kind of hedonistic carnival. As T.O. rightly observes, “[a]fter experiencing the turmoil of life, the aching pain in the melodies is all too palpable.”
Until today, two songs from the album had been revealed, and today we’re bringing you a third one, wrapped in a stunning video.
On this debut album Romain is accompanied by two tremendously good sessions musicians — Merlin Bogado and Nicolas Muller. At a very high level, the music they’ve made is an elaborate intertwining of black, death, and progressive metal in which melodies of great emotional power become the songs’ most striking features.
Of the three songs you can now hear, “Shining Amidst the Lights” appeared first, originally disclosed last year on Transcending Obscurity’s 2026 label sampler. It wastes no time immersing listeners in an extravagantly swarming and swirling spectacle of sound, backed by thundering bass-lines and neck-snapping beats and fronted by scalding howls. The lead guitar surfaces and whirls, with its melodies straddling lines between ecstasy, menace, and sorrow.
Harmonized guitars also slowly wail, casting an exotic and elegant spell of intrigue, and in the song’s gentlest phase a guitar moodily ripples as the bass murmurs. The song’s intensity continues to ebb and flow, to boil over and, at last, to flow in vast cascades that wondrously shine.
“Fragments from a Misty Journey” was the album’s second single. It’s as elaborate and continually morphing as the first one, but its moods are darker and more distressing. At times the music seems to moan and plead, and it includes a mesmerizing but also melancholy solo with a sax-like tone, as well as glinting arpeggios that seem to beckon listeners from another world and others that vividly ripple.
The vocals are again scorching in their hair-raising intensity, and the bass- and drum-work is again tremendously dynamic throughout the song. Like the first one, this one ends in the song’s most ravishing zenith of intensity, but it seems to channel painful emotional turbulence instead of wonder.
And now we come to the third single, the one we’re premiering — “Testimony of an Obsolescent World“. It’s accompanied by a black-and-white video that includes stunning scenes of the natural world that mesh with the song’s own variations of mood and intensity, as well as scenes of human detritus and ruined structures, of fire and ash.
The film is both magnificent and haunting, harrowing and humbling. Its message might be that humanity’s vaunted accomplishments will ultimately come to nothing, and the earth will survive and triumph.
The imagery suits the music very well. Of all the songs you can now hear, “Testimony of an Obsolescent World” is the most heart-broken and tormented. Although the vocals still slash and scald, the music takes listeners through ascending and descending phases of loneliness and despair. Its opening melody is soft and poignant, and then Apolaustic carry it forward with ravishing power.
Once more, the guitar work is multi-textured and often elaborately layered, and the rhythms are relentlessly dynamic. But there’s no mistaking the overarching atmosphere of the song’s melodies, which carries across and through all the prog-metal variations — an atmosphere of regret and distress, of frustration and loss. In many ways the song is spellbinding, and it won’t be easily forgotten, but it’s likely to make your heart ache.
APOLAUSTIC is:
Romain Negro (ex-Stortregn) – Vocals, Songwriting
Merlin Bogado (Dyssebeia) – Session Guitars & Bass
Nicolas Muller (Akiavel) – Session Drums
Transcending Obscurity will release the album on April 3rd, on vinyl LP, jewelcase CD, and digital formats, with apparel and other merch, all of it featuring the striking cover art created by Romain Negro. The label recommends the album for fans of Dissection, Naglfar, Sacramentum, Unanimated, Thulcandra, Stortregn, and Dyssebeia.
PRE-ORDER:
https://apolaustic-label.bandcamp.com/album/no-plenitude-without-suffering
http://transcendingobscurity.aisamerch.com/
http://eu.tometal.com/
APOLAUSTIC:
https://facebook.com/ApolausticBand
https://instagram.com/apolaustic_band