Avant-garde/experimental post-black metal band Botanist from The United States will release a new album, on May 17th, via Prophecy Productions. Fredrik Nordström mixed the new album at Studio Fredman, from Göteborg and Veronica Steiner & Brian Serway created the artwork. More to the point, the band released the single Royal Protea on April 18th, while Magnolia came out on March 20th.
Otrebor comments: “There are practically innumerable variants of Protea, and most of them grow in South Africa, where the eponymous plant of the single originated, about 65 million years ago. Back at the time, the area that is now South Africa was a rain forest.”
On their twelfth full-length Paleobotany, Botanist takes us back more than 70 million years! To a time when dinosaurs ruled the planet and early forests began to turn to coal. Before the age of giants ended in flames with the apocalyptic impact of the Chicxulub asteroid, some families of plants that still have descendants today also grew much larger.
Paleobotany comes with all the trademark characteristics that set Botanist apart from all other metal acts Lyrically, the band from San Francisco, CA revolves around species of plants…. In a clean break from the usual genre stereotypes like Satan, dragons, and booze. Their music clearly has its foundation anchored in metal. However, instead of 6-string guitars, the Americans use 110-string hammered dulcimers. To the confused horror of traditionalists, the band fits these percussion-stringed folk instruments with magnetic pickups. Also, they distort them through various perverse means that range from amplifiers via analogue tape to digital manipulation. The resulting sound is as unique as it is spectacular.
About the new album
Botanist‘s continuing sonic evolution began at an audible Nordic black metal shaped point of entry. The band soon developed a more open, avant-garde style, leading towards a growing complexity. On Paleobotany, the Californians have shed some of the more convoluted progressive elements in favor of more song-oriented arrangements that are still rich in details and surprises. This is enhanced through the album being mixed by renowned Swedish producer Fredrik Nordström (Dimmu Borgir, Opeth, At The Gates) at Studio Fredman.
About the band
That Otrebor has along the way welcomed new fellow musicians to Botanist is one of the factors driving these subtle changes. Vocalist Mar, who was discovered by the mastermind in one of his favorite clubs due to him looking the part of a metal musician, has shifted the focus of more catchy clean parts and even not-at-all-simulated throat singing. Percussion-animal Daturus brings hard-hitting intensity to the drums. Moreover, bass player Tony Thomas contributes his signature ‘proggy’ style. Actually, both of the latter also play in Dawn Of Ouroboros.
When composer, lyricist, vocalist, and multi-instrumentalist Otrebor created Botanist in San Francisco in 2009, he already had the specific plant-based lyrical concept firmly in his mind. Its main protagonist, The Botanist, is characterized as a possibly deranged man of science. He lives in self-imposed exile to stay far away from humanity’s crimes against Nature. In The Verdant Realm, his sanctuary of fantasy and wonder, The Botanist surrounds himself with plant life… To find solace in the company of the natural world, while he envisions the self-destruction of mankind. Botanist‘s lyrics are equally informed by scientific nomenclature as they are inspired by Romantic-era poetry, art, and philosophy.
Band releases vs solo releases
Botanist broke into the light of the world with a massive sprout in the shape of a double-album I: The Suicide Tree / II: A Rose from the Dead (2011). The debut extended into a tripartite sapling with the addition of III: Doom in Bloom (2012). The project’s sprawling discography blossomed into several directions with two further solo-albums: IV: Mandragora (2013) and VI: Flora (2014).
As Botanist kept switching between solo-albums and band efforts, Otrebor devised a system to tell the two strands apart. Thus, albums bearing Roman numbers are solo-recording by Otrebor. The same applies to the EPs with an Arabic number, i.e. EP1: The Hanging Gardens of Hell / Ode to Joy (Split, 2013), EP2: Hammer of Botany (2015), and EP3: Green Metal / Deterministic Chaos (Split, 2016).
When Otrebor started to run Botanist with an ever changing lineup both in studio and on stage, he adopted the marker “Collective” for the following albums: Collective: The Shape of He to Come (2017) and Collective: Setlist 2017 (2017). The later consists of solo material that was re-recorded with the lineup that toured Europe in 2017.
Feeling that this system led to ‘clunky’ titles, the band version of Botanist released the next full-length albums under simple titles. Without a prefix, there are: Ecosystem (2019), Ecosystem Version B (2020), and Photosynthesis (2020). However, Ecosystem Version B (2020) is an alternative version of Ecosystem, but with different drums, bass, mix, lyrics, titles. Also, with the European Tour 2017 singer on vocals.
Conclusion
All in all, Botanist is a unique band. Paleobotany expands their dark green sonic range of an avant-garde metal sound into a more accessible and dynamic sonic experience. When quadruped giants walked the earth, plants were already there… And they will still be here when mankind has gone back to stardust. The band wins its musical future by travelling millions of years into the past with Paleobotany!
Release date: May 17th, 2024
Style: Avant-garde metal
Label: Prophecy Productions
Tracklist
1. Aristolochia
2. When Forests Turned to Coal
3. Magnolia
4. Archaeamphora
5. The Impact that Built the Amazon
6. Sigillaria
7. Strychnos Electri
8. Wollemia Nobilis
9. Dioon
10. Royal Protea
Current lineup
Otrebor – hammered dulcimer, keyboards
Additional collective lineup (recording/live)
Daturus – drums
Tony Thomas – bass
Mar – vocals
