Highly regarded blackened hardcore band Calligra, have streamed their debut LP Askesis one day early.
Listen to Askesis, first premiered via Noisey, below!
ously dark and atmospheric ride through bleakened lands of sonic destruction, a sound that has already seen the band championed by Metal Hammer, Terrorizer, and more.
As the band state:
‘For the ancient Stoics, the Askesis was a totality of rituals, behaviors, and rules that they used to follow and repeat obsessively like a mantra in order to set their mind and prepare it to cope with the nonsense and suffering of life. Similarly, Askesis is Calligram’s personal mantra to face the fact that nothing we do in this life, no matter what, has meaning or purpose. There’s nothing above or beyond any of this. Nothing to stand for. Everything is just floating in an sea of emptiness.’
Askesis is certainly a record that’s suitably deserving of such a grandiose introduction. Led by the Italian Matteo Rizzardo’s tortured shrieking vocals, Calligram are a band not for the faint of heart. However, like all good musicians, Calligram know when to hold back as much as push forward.
The London-based band are true testament to modern music’s global outlook: Italian, Brazilian, and French nationals creating an album of impressive heft. For fans of Impaled Nazarene, Belphegor, Behemoth, and more Askesis is not an album worth missing out on.
Forming in 2011, Calligram’s first release under their current moniker was 2016’s Demimonde, mastered by Alan Douches (The Dillinger Escape Plan, Every Time I Die, Darkest Hour). Calligram quickly caught the attention of Metal Hammer, Terrorizer, Punktastic & Kerrang! Radio’s Alex Baker, amongst others, supporting Downfall of Gaia, Wolfbrigade, and toured around the UK and Europe.
Askesis was recorded in February 2017 at the Ranch Production House with Lewis Johns (Rolo Tomassi, Svalbard, Employed To Serve) & mastered by Audiosiege’s Brad Boatright (Trap Them, Mutoid Man, NAILS).