With a delay of almost two years, Årabrot finally present us with the title track of their 2023 album Of Darkness and Light - and a full new album from the same recording sessions around it.
A comparison of the cover artworks leaves no doubt that Rite of Dionysus and its predecessor are actually meant to be received as sister releases. In hindsight I’d even claim that both albums are in fact each other’s missing halfs. Yet since Of Darkness and Light didn’t feel unfinished when it came out, the obvious question is: What was missing to complete the picture? Which corners of the canvas were left blank?
Årabrot have been around in different formations around singer / guitarist Kjetil Nernes since 2001. The current identity and image, which centers around Nernes and his wife Karin Park with alternating collaborators however has been fully established in 2020/2021 with the releases of both Norwegian Gothic and Park’s sixth solo album Church of Imagination. Since then Årabrot appears as an extension and exagerration of their marriage and lifestyle, which is informed by the couple (now family) living and recording in an actual church. So there’s a deep conjunction between the place, the themes and sounds coming with it, and the musicians’ personal lives, which is heightened to them following an individial religion of Rock’n’Roll. So this band’s image isn’t like your regular Power Metal group cosplaying as pirates. It’s not a shtick that is shed and hung in the cloakroom after leaving the stage - at least not completely, because it’s just too intertwined with reality.
The two mentioned albums have set a standard of how this trinity of place, life and art can merge into one multifaceted yet coherent and easily comprehensible expressive whole. The realm of possibilities within the genre of Norwegian Gothic and the literal Church of Imagination as defined through these works - that’s the canvas. And while on Of Darkness and Light Årabrot painted on it in many shades of black and white and pink, the brush was clearly their personal Post Punk and Noise Rock-infused brand of straight-forward Rock’n’Roll almost all the time. The deeper, more profound and personal notes, the solemn tones and the gospel, yet also the sheer larger presence of Karin Park on synths and vocals in the sound are what this new album now delivers.
This is already appearant in the droning organ oscillation of the opener “I Become Light”, an overture, which gradually builds up, yet still denies the listener a full dramatic release. “A Different Form”, the first song with a bigger chorus, then keeps the tempo moderate, while gripping you with big guitars and bombastic backing vocals. The vibe of “Rock’n’Roll Star” isn’t the cringy AOR it could potentially be, yet a rather mellow song, which brings Midwife’s of course even much airier “Rock N Roll Never Forgets” to mind and features some very ethereal vocals, including the debut of Nernes’ and Park’s daughter, who was only five years old at the time of the recording.
The middle of the album is formed by the morbid Morricone guitar waltz of “The Devil’s Hut”, strong resemblances to modern age Einstürzende Neubauten ballads in “Pedestal” and the heaviest Metal-adjacent Rock – as well as one of the greatest hits - of the release as Årabrot slowly dance “The Satantango”.
With the gloomy spoken words threnody “Mother” the album gets very real and personal, entering a thematic realm it stays in with “Death Sings His Slow Song”, a beautiful Gothic singer/songwriter ballad I could imagine being performed by King Dude. And finally The Rite of Dionysus concludes with its boldest move in the shape of the song which bears the previous album’s name, yet sounds like a full-on 4-to-the-floor Karin Park Dance track! “Of Darkness and Light” could easily be a part of her 2013 Highway Poetry - if only it hadn’t been gender-swapped with Kjetil on lead vocals. This booms straight into my favorite tracks of 2025 hall of fame. A great way to top off this unusual yet strong album.
Ok, that’s it? No, not quite yet. Had I not attended Årabrot’s online listening party this Monday I would continue this review with “The Lunar Menses”, an outtake which only made it into the promo package by mistake. Well, this writing-about-music thing must have some exclusive little perks from time to time, right? The tune reminds me a bit of Muse, Kjetil however disagreed strongly when I mentioned it. But now that you know it exists, you can of course try to persuade the band to release the song as a single at some point to form your own opinion.
