Look, to be clear, Amiensus’ Reclamation Pt.I which arrived in April was a stellar entry into an already dynamic catalog. That said, Reclamation Pt.II blows all of that away. Definitely our most favorite from the Minnesota collective, possibly their best to date, and most certainly their heaviest. In fact! We were pretty sure we had our top Heavy albums of 2024 locked in (Some of which are headed to the Top spot overall) but then this comes along and, when put together as the total package with Pt.I, is pretty hard to deny the all over mightiness.
Listening through Reclamation Pt.II is a pretty indescribable thing as the sounds involved are so varied and disparate that, without knowing Amiensus’ prior body of work, one would be hesitant to believe that the Minnesota-based outfit could pull it off. But they do by seemingly seamlessly mixing a little bit of Yes with some Devin Townsend during the beginnings of his solo career along with pieces of Dead Can Dance and some ICS Vortex and Pasi Koskisen-fronted Amorphis along with their already in place signature Black Metal sounds. It’s that whole “riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma” conundrum but it makes perfect sense when put through an Amiensus filter.
Continuing on from where Pt.I left off (Even the numbering on our digital copy begins with the opener labeled as track 9), “Sólfarið” is a beast with an intense stomp to start as drummer Chris Piette goes off and then some with James Benson’s diverse delivery immediately offering up a broad range of what’s in store along with some menacing Metal shreds from Kelsey Roe, Alec Rosza, and Benson. If you like your Amiensus on the heavier side then Pt.II has GOT YOU! Song lengths tend to be a little shorter overall but they’re no less diabolical in what each offers within.
And after that whole spiel, we get to not only the lone long one but also the first of many that exercises Amiensus’ chops in atmosphere building. Whoops? “Acquiescence”, clocking in at almost nine minutes, is a little bit of Yes and a little bit of The Moody Blues with the way the vocals ethereally drift in with the spacious mood created in the beginning before shredding galore and a bombastic entrance from Benson who’s call and response during the multi-faceted vocal delivery is top notch. Expanding more, the track explores Doom and dirge-like elements and eventually moves into a more Prog-centric world as thematic elements introduced in the previous song can already be felt throughout.
Then a song like “Disconsolate” comes on and we get that aforementioned Dead Can Dance level of haunting aura for this ditty that’s as eerie as it is enchanting while “Decaying God Child” follows in a positively triumphant sounding fashion (Think anything Queen did for Flash Gordon) building a wall of noise hurled into your earholes before laying into a more Progressive Groove. “The Distance” (Featuring Solefald’s Lars Nedland) is like Devin Townsend’s Ocean Machine fronted by Yes’ Jon Anderson and is gargantuan sounding moving along in awe-inspiring strides like a steadily moving Kaiju/Titan yet even for an outlier with the way the clean vocals soar it still fits within the Reclamation framework especially with Piette’s precise pummeling and the Heavy ass breakdown toward song’s end.
Similarly monolithic and just when you thought it was safe to take out the ear protection (Cuz safety, not noise obviously), “Leprosarium” comes in for a penultimate aural assault that’s filled with all the vastness that makes Amiensus so endearing and a shred fest around the 2-minute mark that’s got these rapid fire riffs from Benson, Roe, and Rosza answering some truly disgusting drumming out of Piette (In a good way) as bassist Todd Farnham lays in with the rumbling reverberations. A fitting finale to complete the entirety of Reclamation enters the fray next with the expansive “Orb of Vanishing Light” dialing up the Black Metal intensity with all involved at the top of their game with Benson especially offering peak performance and screams yielding both expansive and electric results.
Reclamation Pt.II arrives through M-Theory Audio on August 30th with pre-orders available now by heading here. For more from Amiensus, follow the band across the information superhighway by clicking here or here.