Eros|Anteros is slated as the follow-up to OATHBREAKER’s critically-acclaimed Maelstrom album, which was released via Deathwish Inc. in 2011. The label has set an August 20 release date for the band’s new album.
According to a press release, Eros|Anteros is OATHBREAKER’s “story of love and the anti-love (life and death), and the growth they have experienced through these trials.”
In opener “Beeltenis” (Dutch for “Portrait”) layers of melodious guitar cry out to one another through the blackness. Acting as a ghostlike warning before OATHBREAKER whips calm to chaos. “No Rest for the Weary” then abruptly crashes forward with breakneck speed and from there the floodgates of Eros|Anteros are open. As vocalist Caro Tanghe lets out the hair raising screams of “I’ll never know what it means – this deadly calm inside,” it’s clear that this album is more potent and personal than most heavy music; this is a collective soul searching for the band. This is most apparent in brother and sister songs “As I Look Into the Abyss” and “The Abyss Looks Into Me.” A stunning pairing that shows Oathbreaker racing through razor sharp metallic riffing before erupting into a vicious emotional explosion. This quarrel continues throughout Eros|Anteros, finally coming to a head in the haunting closer “Clair Obscur.” A brilliant eleven minute epic that carefully balances shoe-gaze leanings with their wounded post-metal heart.
Eros|Anteros tracklisting:
1. Beeltenis
2. No Rest for the Weary
3. Upheaval
4. As I Look Into the Abyss
5. The Abyss Looks Into Me
6. Condor Tongue
7. Offer Aan De Leegte
8. Agartha
9. Nomads
10. Clair Obscur
