Dutch avantgarde metal outfit Grey Aura is back with their third full-length studio album! Four years after the acclaimed Zwart vierkant, the Utrecht-based quartet is ready to release Zwart vierkant: Slotstuk, a new, unpredictable journey through art and music. The first single “Opgehangen afgrond” is a first taste of what Grey Aura have been working on in the last few years.
Zwart vierkant: Slotstuk (Black Square: Finale, Final Piece) continues Grey Aura’s journey into the intersection of abstract art and psychological disintegration. Building on themes from their 2021 album, Zwart vierkant, the new work delves into the second half of Ruben Wijlacker’s novel, De protodood in zwarte haren. This story follows Pedro, a 20th-century Modernist painter whose attempt to dismantle physical reality through abstraction leads him to the brink of madness.
Drawn to the avant-garde movement of Suprematism, Pedro becomes captivated by Kazimir Malevich’s ‘Black Square’: an emblem of pure abstract feeling and the rejection of natural representation. To him, the painting’s void is not merely an end but a gateway to boundless artistic potential and spiritual enlightenment.
Within this black square, Pedro envisions his muse, Chauchat—a Wallonian poet and the wife of another collective member. Their elusive romance reflects the essence of abstraction: an existence more imagined than tangible, always slipping beyond his reach.
As his obsession grows, Pedro convinces a group of Utrecht artists to join him in creating a Gesamtkunstwerk—a three-dimensional embodiment of the black square. His unrelenting drive pushes the collective toward bizarre tasks and even criminal acts, all in service of his radical vision.
The story reaches its climax when Pedro unveils his ultimate creation: an empty void, a chilling representation of the death of the physical realm and the culmination of his artistic ideology.
Zwart vierkant: Slotstuk will be out via Avantgarde Music on March 28th on CD, LP and digital. Preorders will be available in February.
GREY AURA
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