A new Czech black metal revelation SOMNIATE is about to hit the public with its debut concept album entitled “The Meyrinkian Slumber.” Being the newcomers, there is enough experience in the bandʹs ranks which consist of musicians known from BRUTALLY DECEASED, ET MORIEMUR,
FEEBLE MINDED, HEAVING EARTH, MALLEPHYR, SÓL. However, SOMNIATE has come out as a strong entity having its own unique vision and intent.
“The Meyrinkian Slumber” is a sophisticated black metal flight above the esoteric plot of Gustav Meyrinkʹs masterpiece novel “The Golem”. A tale of searching for the ascension through identity shifts, alchemical concepts and suffering, all set in a distorted vision of Prague. A former patient of psychiatric hospital tries to put his life and memory back together after years of amnesia through events and places that will make him question his sanity again. Athanasius Pernath makes his way through the ominous ghetto and the Old Town in a dream-like state and so does the listener.
There are writers who merely write about esoteric themes and the ones who actually live them. For an Austrian novelist Gustav Meyrink (1868 – 1932) the things in and above men were more than an amusement. His suicide attempt in 1891 was followed by lifelong practical studies of forgotten knowledge and secret arts. Meyrink was fascinated and repulsed by sinister corners of old Prague – in the same way as Kafka was. In Meyrinkʹs mind it was more disgust than love for the obscure nature of the city. The same man who once was a rich banker and drove the very first automobile in the streets of Prague was persuaded to leave Prague by force because of his involvement in mysticism.
Read our review here.
