The new year is off to the races! And we kick if off with The Light Below’s new record Georgia whose basic concept might make no sense at first glance but then again makes all the sense in the world! How can Post-Metal become any better this year?

Sometimes a little BTS (Behind the Scenes, not the Korean shit!) can spread some light and light entertainment. While we are currently gathering all the AOTY stuff for 2025, we also, of course, are starting into 2026, mostly still in cruise control mode. Nonetheless, when a record like this one comes sprinting around the bend screaming “CONTENDER!” one gives it a spin and sometimes that one spin turns into a whole afternoon and the admiration grows with it. After the end of this afternoon, I can assuredly proclaim that The Light Below’s new record Georgia is a strong first contender for Album of the Year. 2026.

To get back to the aforementioned “concept” behind the record: This is a collaboration piece between the Akhla Akhlaa female choir focused on the folklore and choral chants from Georgia and The Light Below, which some might remember their one self-titled record from 2019, sometimes also called ”Live at Funkhaus” - at least on Bandcamp you can find it with that title. These two musical entities from very opposite parts of the musical spectrum proof that once you bend the edges far enough, they will touch each other and, maybe, find common ground. In this case the soft female vocals lend themselves perfectly to work hand in hand with the harsh, angular, noisey, and commanding melodies by The Light Below. Commanding is a good word in this context as one might think that the trio (bassist Frank Binke, Eric J. Breitenbach on the drums and Patrick Christensen utilizing the six-string) might overpower the female voices but as with every great collaboration, the differences are challenges and overcoming them results in a major upswing as the music will become much larger than its singular parts and in the end it is unclear which side is commanding and leading in which part. The women use old, classical Georgian folklore, some songs are so old, that they only exist as part of certain traditions although it’s unclear what they actually mean on their own. That is also a good description of this collaboration – seemingly, each side is unable to survive without the other – which means they need it each other for dear life. Some of the songs are so cleverly interwoven that one does not even notice that it’s a song some might have heard before: the second track ”Tsinkharo” was part of the infamous Nosferatu-version by Werner Herzog with Klaus Kinski playing the part which he might have been born to play. Here the female voices and the musical build-up go hand in hand to the dark top (or light abyss, however you prefer) growing stronger and stronger with each turn. When moving into the next track, ”Kirialesa” the mood is already a little different, maybe a tinge more industrial and less noisey but here the ritualistic aspect of the chorals is more evident than before – something that the record has in common with acts as diverse as Dead Can Dance or Messa.

The women and musicians interact on a double level: once in collaboration with the other musical partner (the level of choir and band) and also on a personal level (as musicians within one of these two entities) – and very often one forgets that dichotomy as the only meaningful ideal is reached and achieved so often: To create music which is old and modern at the same time; which has roots centuries old and futures far beyond the present. And that, dear readers, is what goes music goes for: timelessness. As I said before - Georgia is AOTY material. For 2026.

PS: Mentioning that this is one of the last recordings by Steve Albini might be a great fact but the record itself doesn’t need such accolades as it should collect them on its own!

PPS: That their video for “Tsinkharo” partially shares some of the motives from the Herzog-sequence is surely no incident, just think of the motif of running/moving away though in the middle of the whole scene….