Metatron‘s visit to Auswitch Birkenau in Nov 2011 set in motion the forthcoming Meads of Asphodel album, Sonderkommando. With some prose recorded on site, and all the lyrics jotted down over three days. Metatron enthuses “Auschwitz [especially Birkenau] is a cold, eerie place where death laughs and the world spins blindly past. I couldn’t even begin to imagine the suffering of the children here, unless I went to the very place that was without a doubt, Hell on Earth. I Forgot about Jews and Nazi’s for a moment, and just looked upon pure hatred, and human beings slaughtered for sadistic self gratification under the veil of a flawed ideology.”
The end result is portrayed on the forthcoming album, entitled Sonderkommando, Produced by, JD Tait, which is the natural follow-up to 2010’s ‘The Death Of Jesus The Jew’.
With the departure of original/ long time drummer, Urakbarameel [now in Daken], a new skin pummeling Norwegian drummer, André Kjelbergvik Thung , has been welcomed to the fold adding another ruthless dynamic to the sound. The new album is darker, slower, faster, colder, and warmer. There are many surprises/ guests, including Mirai [Sigh] on keyboards, Roibeard O Bogail, [Mael Mordha] Whistle, amongst others, and the usual mind bending moments that make the Meads sound what it is.
Cover art was specially commissioned and painted by Aisha Al-Sadie and reflects what the album is all about. There are no political motives for creating, Sonderkommando [special unit], and a comprehensive track by track analysis will be on the bands web site to add more detail to the ‘at times surreal lyrics’ Take the track ‘Last Train to Eden’, at first glance a title that bares no relation to Auschwitz, and yet it was, Himmler’s vision to create a Germanic agricultural Utopia in Silesia, hence the titles two sided meaning. The Holocaust has spawned both an abhorrence to the tragic stories of the victims and sympathies relating to its perpetrators. This album touches on both.
Sonderkommando is a journey into the abyss of mans inhumanity. It tells of a place where all that becomes of a human being is a half a kilogram of ash. It can only glimpse this world of total brutality born from the age old irrational implementation of murder on racial grounds. If the oceans were filled with ink and all the Forest’s and trees were pens, even then it would not be possible to record the horrors of Auschwitz…