Postcards From New Zealand
nin-an-ak

Postcards from New Zealand probably show lots of grandiose landscapes and things like that, but there is also a band hiding behind such a moniker – and it is not just any band. Look at how many albums they have put out since the debut in 2008, but they are anonymous so it may be several bands in one – who knows? They often do collections of albums to tell stories, this one is the betwixt and between collection and it is the second part where the first part was called burn withch burn – for some reason they do not capitalise their titles. I read that the “title is taken from the 1967 essay by Victor Turner in which he explores the concept of liminality, based on the work of Arnold van Gennep and his 1909 book Rites de Passage. The idea was to create three albums that would express our deep contempt towards patriarchy and sexual discrimination in three different ways.”

The first showing burn witch burn was a more extreme metallic creation very much of a black metal album, I didn’t really like that but never had the time to write about it. This one is in the music player described as Post-Sumerian-chamber-death-prog-core, how about that for a description? It is instrumental and theatrical metal with progressive death metallic tones as well as several folk and chamber music additions. They use a string quartet in order to create a haunting atmosphere through the tracks. It sounds quite fresh. And it shows to me that PFNZ is a band that dares to be adventurous with their albums, that makes them more interesting than most as accessible and déjà vu is the most common goals for songwriters these days. This one is interesting and different, but of course it makes the album a bit more demanding to get to know, but also more rewarding.

This is a great album; the adventure plays in the mind – the story about the Sumerian goddess of war and carnal lust Inanna is what they are committing to record and they to it well. I find this one creatively impressive, it is dramatic and interesting. A great album, plain and simple. And compared with the first part it is a good step up for me, I didn’t like that one, but using this one as a reference I can conclude that the predecessor has merit as well and it will be very interesting to see what the third part of this collection will offer – something tells me that we will not have to wait very long for that one considering the release pace of this band. It is certainly well worth checking out nin-an-ak.

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