Los Angeles husband-wife Drone Metal duo Shrine Maiden are back with their latest single “Ua ‘ike au”, off their just released album A Theory of /Cloud/. It’s heavy on the heavy – surging drones, doom-metal riffage, searing screams, palpable fog emanating from the speakers – but one of the most interesting aspects of Shrine Maiden is how vocalist / drummer / synth player Rachel Nakawatase weaves in traditional Hawaiian chant and prayer through their compositions. The layered light / dark of this record comes through in really evocative ways. Fans of bands like Ragana and Divide and Dissolve will find a lot to love here.
“Ua ‘ike au” is a meditative slowburn from the husband-wife drone–metal band Shrine Maiden that highlights the bands pole-star exploration of light and dark. The track is a duet between Ryan Betschart’s reverb-rich guitar and Rachel Nakawatase’s vocals sung in traditional Hawaiian. The result is a haunting composition that is reflective of the lighter aspects of the duo’s music. Fans of artists like Bell Witch, Emma Ruth Rundle and the avant-folk of Richard Youngs will find a lot in here.
Inspired largely by French philosopher and aesthetics theorist Hubert Damisch, heavy experimental duo Shrine Maiden’s A Theory of /Cloud/ represents a very contemporary depth of intellectualism and poetry in metal. Like Apparitions’ propensity for interpreting Georges Bataille and Diane Wakoski as forbidding walls of sound, Shrine Maiden are driven by a desire to enfold complex and varied concepts into music that is by turns crushing and effervescent.
Singers / multi-instrumentalists –– and husband-and-wife duo –– Rachel Nakawatase and Ryan Betschart, as Shrine Maiden, weave grinding slow-motion riffs and howling vocals through dark ambient soundscapes. Echoes of post-goth ethereal bands like Lycia and This Ascension abound in the occasionally dreamy, chorus-soaked, strumming reveries –– but explosions of doom-drone and blackened transcendence recall The Body, Thou, and other contemporary mavens of the rich ecosystem of experimental metal genres. Indeed, with A Theory of /Cloud/, Shrine Maiden have confidently taken their place within that thriving ecosystem.
