This day in Fysisk Format history: FY021 Kollwitz - Like Iron I Rust
8 years ago today we released this Majestic yet minimalistic post-metal record with a distinct Norwegian coldness.
Listen here:
We still have some copies of the LP and CD left here
The press text for 'Like Iron I Rust':
The time has come for Bodø Norway's Kollwitz' first album -
"Like Iron I Rust"
There are great expectations to the debut of this five piece band who has a background from influential hardcore bands like The Spectacle and Beyond the Fences, and were founded three years ago. Many would label Kollwitz a metal band, but themselves they feel much acquainted with hardcore punk, post-rock and other experimental genres.
The band mainly consists of drums, bass, guitar and vocals. The album, recorded and mixed by the band themselves together with Martin Bowitz (The Spectacle,, Kråkesølv, Cold Mailman), were reinforced by passages of synths and strings.
"The recording was just as much a project on learning how to record and produce as it was a purely musical event. At the same time we knew we had to treat the songs fairly. When Martin joined the team that concern disappeared instantly."
"Like Iron I Rust" is released as a 1000 numbered copies with a bronze-printed and marked cardboard-cover illustrated by Johannes Høie:
"I found a lot of inspiration in the music when I was asked to draw the cover. It was musically something that fitted very well with how I express myself artistically, so the project was a pleasing task. I have basically followed the first ideas I got from the associations and moods of the music. Human-made debris has replaced nature, and the landscape appears as a desert of iron and concrete. A kind of "metallic nature" is left behind."
The idea of a distinct northern musical expression has been explored for years by everything from soft jazz musicians to grim black metallers: from both Norway and the rest of the world. Kollwitz' contribution to this tradition is based on long and careful progressions through sparse soundscapes with a magnificent dynamic range, possibly reflecting the great mountains that surround their hometown. Through merciless isolation - where the cold has shattered all unnecessary tones - frugal and clear-headed contrasts build a beautiful, yet disturbing atmosphere of dystopian melancholy. To this backdrop lyrics about unwanted obsessions, personal insufficiency and broken relations are performed: poetry juxtaposed with politics.
"Like Iron I Rust" feels like a warning signal of something pending, something threatening and unknown.
"That mountains will crack
The ground will breach
And hearts will open"
- A Great Divide
We still have some copies of the LP and CD left here
The press text for 'Like Iron I Rust':
The time has come for Bodø Norway's Kollwitz' first album -
"Like Iron I Rust"
There are great expectations to the debut of this five piece band who has a background from influential hardcore bands like The Spectacle and Beyond the Fences, and were founded three years ago. Many would label Kollwitz a metal band, but themselves they feel much acquainted with hardcore punk, post-rock and other experimental genres.
The band mainly consists of drums, bass, guitar and vocals. The album, recorded and mixed by the band themselves together with Martin Bowitz (The Spectacle,, Kråkesølv, Cold Mailman), were reinforced by passages of synths and strings.
"The recording was just as much a project on learning how to record and produce as it was a purely musical event. At the same time we knew we had to treat the songs fairly. When Martin joined the team that concern disappeared instantly."
"Like Iron I Rust" is released as a 1000 numbered copies with a bronze-printed and marked cardboard-cover illustrated by Johannes Høie:
"I found a lot of inspiration in the music when I was asked to draw the cover. It was musically something that fitted very well with how I express myself artistically, so the project was a pleasing task. I have basically followed the first ideas I got from the associations and moods of the music. Human-made debris has replaced nature, and the landscape appears as a desert of iron and concrete. A kind of "metallic nature" is left behind."
The idea of a distinct northern musical expression has been explored for years by everything from soft jazz musicians to grim black metallers: from both Norway and the rest of the world. Kollwitz' contribution to this tradition is based on long and careful progressions through sparse soundscapes with a magnificent dynamic range, possibly reflecting the great mountains that surround their hometown. Through merciless isolation - where the cold has shattered all unnecessary tones - frugal and clear-headed contrasts build a beautiful, yet disturbing atmosphere of dystopian melancholy. To this backdrop lyrics about unwanted obsessions, personal insufficiency and broken relations are performed: poetry juxtaposed with politics.
"Like Iron I Rust" feels like a warning signal of something pending, something threatening and unknown.
"That mountains will crack
The ground will breach
And hearts will open"
- A Great Divide
