Description

Comprised of seven tracks spanning just over thirty minutes, conceptually O Coração Negro da Terra harkens to the chaotic socio-political environment the masses face daily, including social transformations, the power imbued within human relationships and the individual’s perception of existence. Themes entail society’s ever-increasing entanglement with technology; vanity as humanity’s ruin; man’s legacy of destruction; loneliness and fragility of the self; commodified suffering and the threat of power destroying all-inclusiveness and progress. The track ‘Os Homens Ocos’ is further inspired by and translates to the title of T.S. Eliot’s poem ‘The Hollow Men,’ where both gesture to the sightlessness within the lost souls of many.

Formed in 2015, in the riff metropolis of São Paulo, Brazil, Basalt unify elements of doom, black metal and dark experimental tones, subverting musical archetypes and create new extreme audio terrains. Harkening to the dense low-end, cavernous and intense depths of the heavy sonic, Basalt fuse this fury with extraordinary ambient and atmospheric scope, incorporating a unique channelling of influences and sounds. Melding rawness and discordance with progressive and expansive breadth, Basalt truly wield aural transgression and transformation.

The quintet is formed of current and previous members of bands including Surra, Constrito, O Cúmplice, Meant to Suffer, Bomb Threat and Magzilla. Bass player Flávio Scaglione, who played on Basalt’s debut album O Coração Negro da Terra departed in 2017, with swift replacement Leonardo Saldiva taking on bass and vocals duties.

BASALT ARE:
Marcelo Fonseca – Vocals
Pedro Alves – Guitar/Vocals
Luiz Mazetto – Guitar
Leonardo Saldiva – Bass/Vocals
Victor Miranda – Drums

O Coração Negro da Terra was recorded and mixed by Kiko & Kexo at Estudio Duna, São Paulo, Brazil during May and July 2016.

Remastered by Adam Richardson at XL Recordings, London, UK during November 2018.

Artwork courtesy of Carolina Scagliusi.

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