Dallas avant-garde metal band Amnesia Gardens has stirred up the pot with their release of their conceptual ep, A Kingdom Where Hyenas May Jest and Prance, available now on Bandcamp. 4 songs deep and roughly 14 minutes, this ep is as malevolent as the amount of despair and anguish it takes to match. There is a daunting presence that lures of the extreme core influences with the breakdowns, growled vocals a bits of catchiness. There’s no mistake of the thunderous death metal/ death grind tone present with the usage of blast beats, and the impressive sound of the snare. Sporadic tempo changes with signature tuning gave me a dash of mathcore influence but not enough to detect the flavor. What’s captivating about this ep, sonically, is the contrast that portrays an eerie and haunting presence of this ep. “ Christian hymns, gospel and southern gothic music was an huge influence on the aesthetics for this record” Morgan says, the vocalist of Amnesia Gardens as she explains the contrasting samples. “ We use these hymns and samples to create a juxtaposition between the heavy sections and the moments of calm. We wanted the ambient sections to be their own beasts along with the riffs”.

Behind the sound is a deeper concept that I enjoyed exploring with Morgan. She begins to explain to me that the lyricism behind the music is centered around war crimes, in turn explains the contrast in each song, “ The records itself is about the war crimes in Vietnam and the atrocities the French and the Americans committed. Fitting to the time period of Vietnam when western belief was so prevalent in pushing Christian norms. I think it fits the back drop of loosing faith in war”. Morgan states that this subject isn’t talked about enough & believes America doesn’t acknowledge that dark period in time, “ It was a horrendous time and it felt like something I needed to research and write about”. Judging by the titles and in a familiar style of writing, I asked Morgan about her literary influences. She proceeded to list a number of iconic poets and authors of literature; Stroker, Lovecraft, Poe and Huxley, along with reading old school death metal lyrics. “ I think giving the lyrics a surreal undertone on top of the blood and gore showcases what we are aiming for.” Morgan says.

From Flesh to Mist was a fun track for Morgan to record. She tells Bored that initially it was going to be a quick, in and out song, but continued to add on to it, from the fight riff to the gospel outro. She began to mention how the late Olan Martin and Zach Fleming from Gagging Order and Soledad became features on the track. “We ended up having a kickback during the recording session and Olan just came over and killed his part. Zach wanted to hop on and do a trade off because why not? It came out sick.” Morgan goes on to express how she felt about Olan, in remembrance after his passing, “ Olan [Martin] was a friend of our and we thought he would fit a portion of the track, I’ve always love his presence as a vocalist and frontman. He was a wonderful human being and we’re honored he lent his talents to this record.”

RIP Olan Martin

Photo Credit: Cane Wilson

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A Kingdom Where the Hyenas May Jest and Prance ep