Exclusive Song + Video Premiere: Calligram’s “Anedonia”
Prosthetic Records’ latest signing, Calligram, are going to be your new favorite black metal band. With its lyrics written entirely in Italian, the group’s new album, The Eye Is the First Circle (the name comes from an essay by Ralph Waldo Emerson), isn’t a merely a collection of incredibly well-written, evil-sounding songs (although it is certainly that); it’s a menagerie of malignant spirits, a walk over hot coals while your feet are impaled with nails, an existential hell given aural form and unleashed into your ears. It’s black metal like you’ve never quite heard before.
So makes sense that Calligram are rolling out the first two Circle singles in a most unusual manner. The London-based multi-national quintet have ostensibly made a short film split into two parts and set to two different tracks from the album, with the first part, “Anedonia,” premiering today here and MetalSucks, and the second part, “Vivido Periere,” debuting on Metal Injection on Thursday, March 5. Shot in sumptuous black and white and unusually attuned to the finer details of its stars’ performances, they’re a far cry from your standard metal video fare.
Says drummer and self-professed film nerd Ardo Cotones of the clips:
“I thought we’d try and create something a little different to the usual aspects of classic metal videos; fast camera movements, fast edits and stories intertwined with the band playing. So the band on this short film is just an element of the central story. To be able to build tension and develop the characters enough that you’d care about what happens, we needed more screen time so we split the story into two parts. Anedonia is moody enough to set the tone, Vivido Perire is more relentless once it kicks off which is where the story picks up from in part two. The style is inspired by the films of Paweł Pawlikowski and the French New Wave as I’m a massive film nerd.”
Watch the video “Anedonia” below! The Eye Is the First Circle comes out April 10 on Prosthetic, and can be pre-ordered here. The band have a string of UK tour dates lined up, starting at the end of this month. Get dates at the bottom of this post!
Upcoming Calligram UK tour dates
28/02 – Anvil Rock Bar, Bournemouth*
29/02 – Temple of Boom, Leeds*
01/03 – The Chameloen, Nottingham*
20/03 – Dreadfest, Temple of Boom, Leeds
10/04 – Riffs Against Fascism, DIY Space, London
11/04 – The Old England, Bristol
12/04 – Akedo Gaming Bar, Lincoln
13/4 Century Audio, Ramsgate+
15/4 TBC, Edinburgh
17/4 TBC, Brighton
18/4 Cathays Community Centre, Cardiff
*w/ Harrowed & Geist
+ Matinee show
