Amenra - Diaken

Amenra is a band that's relatively recent in my life. I might've known the name from somewhere, but truth be told, most of the past twenty years are years where the heavier type of music took a huge backseat in my life. It was the rare band that actually succeeded in captivating me. Sometime maybe in 2015 or so I came across a video of theirs - can't remember which - and I found it somewhat interesting. At the time, I listened to a lot of music at work, and most of the music I listened to was something that I could easily ignore, I just needed something to drown out the sound. If I'm not mistaken, at the time I was playing a lot of Mono, Hungry Ghosts, God is an Astronaut, Mogwai, Explosions in the Sky, stuff like that. Something instrumental, or mostly instrumental, that wouldn't occupy a large portion of my brain.
Every now and again Amenra would pop up in a playlist or the other, and though they were quite far removed from any of these bands I mentioned, it didn't offend me to find them there. So eventually I start to tune in to their music a bit more - after you get used to the slow, heavy, emotionally charged guitars, and you start to know the words that are being sung, I started to dig in and decided to catch up on them. More videos followed, more songs, more new experiences. Given time, my playlists were mostly Amenra - and the reader will forgive me if I confess that it still was something that I could listen to while at work without detracting from my concentration.

A couple of years later, and this would be 2017 by now, my situation at work had changed a bit, and I stopped having time to listen to music. Well, I could still manage a song or two here and there, but free time was rare and far between. I made sure to make every single minute count. If the songs I played hitherto were songs I could ignore, now I had to choose what to play, what mattered.
I started curating my playlists with more rigid criteria. Luckily, 2017 gave us 'Mass VI', Amenra's latest album so far. My first exposure to it was the 'A Solitary Reign' video - and from that moment on, that song became at once one of my all time favourites. For months on end I'd listen to pretty much 'Mass VI' only, and almost three years on it's still a record I play a lot. My adoration for it is such that I have no less than three different copies on vinyl. The band itself quickly became one of most represented in my collection.

'Diaken', the song I featured on Instagram was a definite slow-burner for me. For the longest time it was one of those songs that I didn't really connect with - until one day it just hit me.

This. This. THIS :

'When I keep my eyes closed, I'm in your arms again.
And when I keep my head down, it feels like I am home again.
When was the last time there, this is all too much to bear.
Still I keep my eyes closed, I'm in your arms again.
Memories dissolve, and I am alone again.
And when I open my eyes, I am alone again.'

Fatum nos Junget.