After four years in the making, Norwegian MESSIER 16 unbinds their debut album iota, due to be released on May 28th. Aimed at relentlessly contemplative catharsis, this record seeks to dislodge the very bones of your quintessence. In a world of extreme solitude, MESSIER 16 encourages you to find company in this 53-minute journey of solemn musical atmosphere, to dare wallow in it, and let it be a hearth to which you can dry up. Now they released a lyrics video for their new single “Lotus“. You can check it out below.
“Lotus“, (a metaphor of a seemingly free floating, yet bound entity), represents a fast ride in a short and intense roller coaster. As a lot of other tracks on this album, this is an encouragement for seeking self-help. Musically, the song bursts through blast beats with colorful chord progressions, metaphorically setting the listener in the front seats of an intense ride in a blast beat machine.
Jonas comments on the single:
“This track serves as a stepping stone propelling the album forward towards the end of the record. Its narrative content portrays a breaking free from laid foundations and acknowledging one’s own destructive influences. Lotus also reveals a couple core influences of mine, perhaps At the Gates and Rush would make sense. Also, it’s an absolute banger in my ears.”
Inspired by bands like ColdWorld, Opeth and Emperor, as well as Stravinsky, Steve Reich and Jon Hopkins, iota is a difficult album to place, but an easy album to embrace. It’s a musical heat blanket of extreme metal, contemporary classical, and earnest choral elements.
All music written by Jonas Ulrik Eide, founder of the band, with the exception of the opening track, written by Alexander Scriabin, and played by the pianist Eirik Haug Stømner. There’s an orchestra piece played by Trondheim Symphony Orchestra. And a heap of aggressively sentimental metal tracks throughout.
The album as a whole is a deep dive in emotional desperation, and hopefully the listener will find it as inspiring, frustrating, melancholic and atmospheric as it can be.
