KAUAN - Ice Fleet

KAUAN: Artoffact Records to release Russian post-metal visionaries' eighth album "Ice Fleet"; new track streaming

Artoffact Records announces the April 9th release of Ice Fleet, the spectacular new album by Russian post-metal visionaries Kauan.

Stream new track "Raivo" and pre-order the album, here:
https://kauan.bandcamp.com/album/ice-fleet

Opening with the haunting sounds of a creaking ship, Ice Fleet is based on the true story of an unidentified fleet discovered in 1930 in northernmost Russia, completely frozen under the permafrost with crew and passengers' bodies grotesquely preserved.

To tell the tale of this unsolved mystery, Kauan has composed an epic seven-song concept album built upon frigid atmospheres, post-rock melancholy, synth-laden rapture and metallic triumph. Sparse vocals, sung in Finnish, range from the pensive to the blackened to the operatic.

A full immersion, Ice Fleet is the pinnacle of this great band's career thus far.  Supremely evocative, the music puts the listener right there amidst the ice. Flowing from delicate lulls to walls of sound, the album unfolds perfectly – a masterwork of pacing and dynamics.

To accompany the music and enhance the experience, the band has created a 40-page tabletop role-playing game, available now for pre-order along with the LP, CD, and other merch.

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Kauan mastermind Anton Belov began making music in 2005 as a teenager in his home of Chelyabinsk, nearly 1,000 miles east of Moscow. His early work was inspired by the landscapes of the region – the Ural Mountains and vast plains. Seeking a language that would be undecipherable to most people (and honoring some of his favorite metal bands), he chose to write lyrics in Finnish and he named his project with the Finnish word "Kauan," meaning "for a long time." By the age of 16, he had written Kauan’s debut LP, Lumikuuro, establishing his unique ability to combine crushing metal and quiet introspection in seamless ways.

Over eight albums, Belov and his collaborators, now based in Tallinn, Estonia, have carved a special path through the underground. 2015 saw the release of Sorni Nai, arguably Kauan’s most ambitious work up to that point, chronicling the Dyatlov Pass Incident, an expedition of nine doomed hikers who mysteriously died in a blizzard in the Ural Mountains. The album received extensive critical acclaim, including this high praise from Stereogum: "Kauan blend elements of folk and metal better than perhaps any other band today, clouding doom in a lush and weary atmosphere... The band captures a sad sense of loss — not maudlin but nostalgic." 2017's Kaiho saw Kauan step away from its metal origins in favor of atmospheric rock, featuring lyrics written by the great Finnish folk singer Marja Mattlar. In 2021, Kauan has returned with a new label, Toronto-based Artoffact Records, to release the band’s most ambitious album to date: Ice Fleet. 

Tracklist:
1) Enne
2) Taistelu
3) Maanpako
4) Kutsu
5) Raivo
6) Ote
7) Hauta

Lineup:

Anton Belov - guitar, vocals

Alina Belova - keyboards, vocals

Alexander Vynogradoff - bass

Anatoly Gavrylov - viola

Anton Skrynnik - drums

Discography:

Lumikuuro (2007, BadMoodMan Music)

Tietäjän Laulu (2008, BadMoodMan Music)

Aava Tuulen Maa (2009, BadMoodMan Music)

Kuu.. (2011, Avantgarde Music)

Pirut (2013, Blood Music)

Sorni Nai (2015, Blood Music)

Kaiho (2017, kauanmusic)

Ice Fleet (2021, Artoffact Records)

Photo of Anton Belov, by Alina Belova