Album Review: Kamra - Unending Confluence
Reviewed by Sam Jones
I don’t have many instances of checking out bands from Slovenia but Kamra are certainly one of them and a black metal act to boot too. Formed in 2020 out of Ljubljana, Kamra are an act who only entered my horizons recently, especially when the band were described as dissonant and atmospheric. 2021 saw their first EP, Conversing With Ghosts release, and just a year later Kamra would follow this up with their debut studio album: Cerebral Alchemy. With another three years behind us Kamra return with their second full length record titled Unending Confluence, once more distributed through Avantgarde Music. Given the description given to Kamra being that of dissonant and atmospheric black metal I was more than curious to check them out and its not often to find a release from Slovenia either.
Its interesting that the band place the two longest songs on the record one after another right at the start; one could propose this is the band introducing us to their archaic and disjointed style of black metal for it sounds unfriendly and does not welcome newcomers. You want to carry on here? Kamra question whether you can endure it. But then they have a smaller track afterwards, applying a breather to let you process what you just heard. Want to carry on? Pause? Go further? This is that moment where Kamra offer the question of continuing and, should you, they have another three tracks of punishing and unknowable black metal to keep you engaged and perplexed. Now bands implement this approach to allow listeners understand what has transpired, but as we’ll discuss soon i don’t think this is the kind of record one sits down to analyse deeply and pinpoint its working intricacies. The record on the whole works best when you put aside the analytical, intellectual side of yourself and simply surrender to Kamra’s insanity as each track follows the last, refusing to indulge its secrets.
I appreciate that Kamra prefer longer tracks. It enables them to delve further into the songwriting they desire and thus develop their music along the lines they think will manifest the greatest fruition. It also helps Kamra bring their dissonant and archaic form of black metal to life for additional time spent on their sound lets the audience feel it all the more. If such a sound is given less time to develop it could result in a stunted product and thus not reach the potential it may reach. Their songwriting is populated with these smaller, ever-changing sequences, rarely following routine, so you need to keep on your toes to expect anything in Kamra’s arsenal. What you listen to in the moment will not be for long so appreciate while you have hold of it for the band will swipe that out of your hand in a moment’s notice. But i think people will be struck by the unconventional violence this record possesses; there are very few instances of typical aggression one would expect in a black metal record, rather the inherent power feels targeted towards something more ethereal, something older, than just your mere person alone, and that extra time spent with each song gives us time to immerse ourselves so whilst we’re listening, its just you and Kamra with no other aspects creeping in to foil that immersion.
But damn this is one of the more theatrical vocal performances I've heard lately. Rather than pull off the expected and conventional blackened delivery, vocalist Nik Kosar gives us a performance you’d find upon the grandest stage. Here he manages to evoke themes of suffering and strife but also of pushing through that pain in spite of the anguish it brings; one can imagine his live delivery being as theatrical as it is on record, commanding that stage, left to right and back again, a veritable force of nature that glues the audience to his performance. He’s just as mobile and active as any instrumental piece. You could almost say his vocals are whatever he decides them to be with little framework as per how a vocal track might play out until he performs it himself there and then, establishing a spontaneity seldom found in black metal, in a style that champions structure and disciplined order. Live shows could wildly vary therefore on how he approaches his vocals; will this segment be pitiful? Is this vocal intonation harsher or softer? How fast? How slow? There seems to be no telling what he’ll so next, which is why this record feels so fun as you understand there’s no predicting how Kamra will conduct the upcoming track.
I believe one reason this record grabbed hold of me particularly is due to the instrumental restraint applied. Kamra aren’t pushing their performance in your face and owing to the more intangible quality their songwriting harnesses I believe its advantageous to the band. The riffs are there, on full show, you’ll be able to comprehend every nicety within their development and how they contribute to the rest of a song, yet the mix has brought everything within a hardlined distance away from us. The band play with explosive strength and tenacity but its hardly the kind that will overwhelm us to the point of missing some elements of their performance. You could listen to the main riff-piece of “Weaver’s Bane” and still pick out the tiniest piece of bass or drumming that you wouldn’t have noticed had the mix been closer in your face. But owing to their songwriting and the nature of their black metal, its geared towards experiencing the band’s performance as a whole instead of finding it dominated by a singular instrumental component. Its this method via the production that really lets their dissonant side come to the fray as the audience is given the means to fully sit back and bask in the blinding, harrowing nightmare this record purports. Rather than plant ourselves within the dreamscape Kamra position us right on the cusp of it so we may see the terrible form such horror takes, without marring it in semi-lucidity.
In conclusion, Unending Confluence is an unusual black metal album because by its end you know you’ve had a roaring time yet you’ll struggle to put your finger down on why exactly that is. You could play this another dozen times perhaps without answering a single word as to why you believe its great; you’ll know it in your bones though. For me, its because Kamra refuse to play by the rules and thus wrote a black metal album that couldn’t care less if you didn’t get it; its not here to be understood or dissected, it wants to be unknowable, shunning corporeal form. It enraptures your attention where all else is numbed yet its been mixed in such a way that it purposefully stands back to give you the room necessary to truly experience the full scope of how weird it can be. It is simultaneously all over the place and in control at every given moment, whether you consider blast beats, the theatrical vocals, the spindly riffs etc. Unending Confluence is a fascinatingly dark record whose form constantly shifts, changing face, changing dimensions. I think anyone listening to this will come away wondering what on Earth they just heard right before going back to the beginning again. Unending Confluence is a mystery wrapped in an enigma, one you’ll want to solve, because who can turn down a good mystery?
