NEWS: ATER begin the descent into madness?

After the events of 2018’s “Eternal Gray Spiral” South American trio ATER have something heavier in store for us next month in sophomore album “Somber“. A 19th April release via Torque Records described as “a cataclysmic melding of black, death, progressive and thrashing groove” it was mastered by Ted Jensen of  Sterling Sound (Mastodon, Gojira, Korn). The second single out of the gate is one called “Descending” with the words “Blackened Thall” hanging heavy in the air…

ATER’s founding vocalist and bassist Fernando Bühring comments: ‘’Descending is one of the more straightforward songs in the album and, to me, the darkest song of the bunch. The lyrics for this song are very personal and I wrote them during a very dark period of my life. It turned out to be one of my favorite songs in the new album. It was chosen as the second single in advance of ’Somber’ because it contrasts with the first single ‘Ignis Immortalis’, which is a longer, epic song. ‘Descending’ is shorter and to the point. It will take you to the dark side of your own self right away.’

I personally really enjoy when music videos are an artistic interpretation of the song they are portraying rather than the typical band-in-a-room approach. I always liked stop-motion, animations and more cinematic approaches to music videos. Back in November of 2022 the video for ‘They Move Below’ by Meshuggah came out and I was blown away. At the time not very aware of how AI was making its way into polemics in the art and music industries. I honestly still do not care.

I approached Wizardhead with the idea of him doing a video for ‘Descending’ and he started to work shortly after. During this time I learned more about the creation process and realized that AI is just another tool. To get something out of the AI engines, the artist has to input data, images, footage and whatever else it may require to create their vision, then manipulate the engine to refine their work and sculpt it into the primary vision. The artist is still doing art. Just a different and new set of tools.”

Wizardhead adds: “When I listened to ‘Descending,’ with my eyes closed, I witness a continuum of souls being pulled down into a place of remoteness and hopeless submission to some kind of unrelenting force manipulating and consuming them. Something beyond hell, more alien and incomprehensible. I explored representing a visitation of this place in many attempts, by assembling structures like tunnels and fractal spaces, then applying diffusion approaches to embed faces and body forms into the walls and shapes of the environment. I also wanted constant motion, swirling and undulating, to imply this is an active and conscious experience for the unfortunate denizens. This final version is one I feel deeply connected to and unsettled by, and I hope it becomes a place for others to visit and contemplate again and again as I do.”