Heavy, hypnotic: with Pothamus, fans of mystical experiences are in for a treat. The Belgian trio are releasing Abur, their second album five years after Raya, and the artwork already reassures us of one thing: it already smacks of mystery. The album is described as ‘a pilgrimage through nature, animism and the depths of the human soul’: a record to be listened to with the lights off and a stick of incense!
Getting into the right frame of mind takes time, and Pothamus are no slouches when it comes to playing with time. It's only after two minutes that Zhikarta raise the tone, when that thick bass begins to buzz and the drums intensify their assault. The trio take great care with their ambiences and clearly share more than just their nationality with their compatriots from Amenra: they both cultivate the same taste for the spiritual, for dizzying plunges into the abyss... and probably for Tool's psychedelic mantras! The musicians add the sound of the Surpeti (or shruti-box) to their instruments, supporting this mantra approach.
With repetitive loops and an unstoppable sense of crescendo, Abur takes hold of the listener. Time is irrelevant, and we are swept further and further into a fascinating universe where tribal percussion adds a timeless touch. The voices of Mattias M. Van Hulle and Sam Coussens respond and collide as Pothamus combines elevation and telluric tremors: it's both soft and rough, crushing and immaterial. By turning to the primitive, Pothamus touches on the universal. The band's atmospheric approach, flirting with ambient and folk, sets them apart from the usual benchmarks (Cult of Luna, Amenra, Neurosis, etc.), teasing out the poetry and laments of Wardruna (De-varium and its magnificent funereal mists) while adding their own obscure, incantatory touch that's hard to resist.
As it progresses, the album reveals its full breadth and takes on intimidating proportions. Its esoteric and ancestral facets, the length of the tracks, the thickness of the sound... everything is done to give us the impression of labyrinthine ruins as immense as they are ancient, of a lost temple that we have the privilege of exploring as violent storms alternate with introspective contemplation (Savartuum Avur, both eventful and meditative, or the title track, powerful, wild and enigmatic). Each track is a journey, a world unto itself, and Pothamus seems to be in apotheosis at every moment. Abur is an immemorial, monolithic monument, an intimidatingly beautiful colossus of mystery.
