A profound work depicted by India's own Visual Amnesia.
From the South of France come Uncomfortable Knowledge, a unit formed from likeminded talents spread across the country's rich metal underground just prior to the start of the pandemic. With a quarantine to follow shortly after, the band used this period to hone in on their creative approach, finding ways to seamlessly integrate their hardcore, sludge, and heavy metal influences into one cohesive composition. Fast forward a year later and the band ready the arrival of their debut album, Black Queen, which comes adorned by the elegant melancholy of Reuben Bhattacharya's (Visual Amnesia) artistic prowess. Heaviest of Art is thrilled to share the cover with you today, complete with all of the emotional depth present throughout the record.
Band frontman Sabatier Guillaume comments:
"I can say that this collaboration was really great and friendly, I take a lot of pleasure to work with Reuben. He really understand how to transform my history in art and it was really important for me. He also create the UK universe as we are at the beginning of our adventure and the results was way beyond I expected! So again, thanks Reuben and I think that we gonna work again together in the future."
Reuben Bhattacharya (Visual Amnesia) adds:
"As Guillaume states, we had a great time working together. The creative synergy was very important to this project as it deals with very deep human emotions and memories. I was given the challenge of portraying a childhood memory of maternal loss and how it impacts human psyche.
A narrative of a child who was denied mother's love is a delicate subject matter to handle, yet it is one of the heaviest and most intense emotions for heavy music. The art had to reflect the inherently dense foggy nature of catharsis that comes from making art out of pain. There's memory symbolism in the album cover, the skull detail, the golden wreath and the dead bird in hand all signify that the beauty of human psychology is naturally to hold on bits of these memories, instead of letting go. So I wanted the cover to feel real in its beauty and pain. A moment caught in endless time.
My inspirations here were in the French fine arts and realism, rich in detail of mood, lighting, textile and human emotions. Creating a period specific mood from the late 18th Romantic era, for a sludgy hardcore outlet was a worthy goal. Unable to find a 'real' connect while trying to draw the figure, I asked my wife to finally pose for the painting and painted the character around her. Painting it from real life made the art come alive and we finally reached what was envisioned. The final goal image when creating a cover, is something that haunts me constantly, because it's telling the entire story in a singular projection. I'm stoked that it helped raise the bar for my art too."
Stream lead single Only War from Black Queen below and mark your calendars for the album's independent September 25th release, which will be celebrated with an inaugural Uncomfortable Knowledge performance in Nimes, France.
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