AMERNA DO RITUALS
These days, whack on a robe and light some incense for your shows, and suddenly you’re not playing a gig – you’re performing a ritual. Unlike most wannabe cultists, however, Amenra are the real deal...
During the first World War, the Belgian city of Diksmuide in West Flanders was reduced to ruins after a series of attacks and bombings. Many people there had already lost fathers and sons to the war, and now they had to rebuild their homes and their lives – to find the strength to keep going.
In 2018, a special event was held in Diksmuide to mark the centenary of the war ending. The artistic spectacle was held in the market square of the city, and included Swiss-german dancer Imre Thormann and a live performance by Belgian five-piece Amenra. It was the beginning of the band’s journey towards what would become their new, seventh album, De Doorn.
“We were contacted by the city and asked [to participate],” explains Amenra frontman Colin H Van Eeckhout. “I think we are seen as thekind of band they could ask; we have this certain weight, seriousness.”
Since forming 22 years ago, Amenra’s searing post-metal has been centred on finding hope in times of desperation – just as the people of Diksmuide had to do all those years ago. The band’s intense live performances are like a vessel for turning collective pain into cathartic release; you always leave feeling as though a weight has been lifted. As Colin says, “A typical thing with Amenra is saying goodbye, embracing what is happening, and finding a way to carry on.”
The WWI centenary was the first of three spectacular, ceremonial events in Belgium between 2018 and 2019 for which Amenra wrote new songs; following Diksmuide, they took part in two separate fire rituals in nearby cities Ghent and Menen. Amenra have always aimed to be more than “just a band”, but these shows took them to another level. “They gave us the opportunity to do something bigger,” says Colin.
“I’m the kind of human that sees [rituals] as being powerful, precious and necessary,” he explains. “Some people don’t need it, and that’s cool. But I do think that some can draw energy, inspiration and positivity from these moments. They bring people together, and there’s not enough of that. What brings people together these days? Entertainment. A festival, a concert. Which is beautiful, but doesn’t have a very profound impact. We still have funerals, births of children, marriage, but in my opinion they sometimes lose their power of effect. It’s about giving worth back to those moments.”
The second event, in Ghent, was created alongside an organisation called Beyond The Spoken, which develops rituals for people to come to terms with death and grief. For this
ritual, the people of Ghent were invited to place notes detailing their own unacknowledged losses inside wooden structures made by Indonesian artist Toni Kanwa Adikusumah, which were then burned in a ceremony while Amenra performed.
“It’s something that is kept inside a person,” Colin says, when asked what is meant by ‘unacknowledged loss’. “Like maybe someone who wants to become a mother, but something doesn’t work physically. Or maybe someone you love had an accident and got hurt. Or it could be something like having to move, or your pet dying. Things that don’t really get a place inside our modern society – the cross you have to carry on your own.”
The final event marked Amenra’s 20th anniversary and took place in Menen, Belgium, in October 2019 – Hammer attended and reported on it. It was a ritual in collaboration with Belgian sculptor Johan Tahon, who created a statue that was placed inside a huge bonfire, and was revealed from the flames as Amenra performed.
These events were intense for Amenra – Colin notes how logistically it was “crazy” diving from one to another. But they were also incredibly rewarding. And once the celebration in Menen concluded, Amenra realised they had written enough new music for a whole album.
p until now, all Amenra’s albums have been given the title ‘Mass’ – Mass I,
II, III, etc. They usually addressed specific things in the bandmembers’ lives, such as their children becoming seriously ill, or their parents passing away. “Our other albums were kind of a direct result of personal trauma,” says Colin, who writes the lyrics. “They have a sense of attacking the things that put a weight on our shoulders, addressing this invisible enemy.”
But these new songs were written for a different purpose, and from a new angle: looking outwards, rather than from within. “These songs were written for people who were experiencing and witnessing the situations at hand,” Colin continues. “It wasn’t about us. So I was addressing the fires, and addressing the people – embracing what is happening, taking people by the hand, and leading them with us. It was more like a group thing.”
Because of this, they gave the album a new title: De Doorn, which translates to ‘The Thorn’. “Recently I grew obsessed with thorns, because I like the idea that it was a nature-made weapon, to protect its owner,” Colin explains. “A rose protects its beauty with thorns, a bush protects its seed or fruit. I transposed the idea onto humans – that we all develop our own thorns to protect ourselves, and we also carry wounds that have been inflicted by other people’s thorns.”
Colin is quick to clarify that it isn’t a religious reference, like Jesus’s crown of thorns. “People have asked that,” he says, “but it’s not really the case.”
De Doorn is the first Amenra album sung entirely in Flemish. “Most of the
“RITUALS CAN BRING PEOPLE TOGETHER”
COLIN H VAN EECKHOUT