French post-metallers Ingrina pummeled us with their ferociously heavy and dense, fog-laden atmospherics back in 2018 with Etter Lys and again in 2020 with Siste Lys. Both albums were based on a “metaphorical tale of the geological and oceanic trials that life forms go through when faced with civilizational nightmares”. Deep, dark and thought-provoking philosophies that were perfectly represented by the sheer power and might that Ingrina instilled in their sound.
Well, it’s 2023 and thankfully Ingrina are back with some new music, and bloody hell, this ten minute epic literally suffocates and smothers the senses with its blistering power and devastating energy. Ice Flares tells a story of lives and phenomenon’s lost in a cyclical infinite amber, trapped in endless loops, suddenly discovering a possible future. The track draws on the symbolic representations of the previous two albums, creating a story and a journey that can be so hostile and so powerful that it goes far beyond our basic comprehensions.
Opening with resonant riffs and layers of vast, earthly atmospherics, the track ploughs forth with distant vocals carrying themselves above the thick musky air and stormy percussions. Swollen lead swells spiral and dance through the mire, generating a tense and volatile atmosphere. The ambiance darkens and changes under a barrage of blast beats and bellowing bass lines, as the tempo accelerates into a chasmic, subterranean passageway which catapults you into a great open void. Doom laden and with funereal pace, a wall of synths fill the air once more under heaving riffs and bone breaking drums. For one final swansong, every instrument and every emotion assembles en masse and absolutely annihilates for the final time, ending a track that is in essence, a voyage through the unknown and the never-ending. It’s bleak yet glorious post-metal that will consume you and have you yearning for more.