Apotheus Leaps Into The Future With Ergo Atlas
Ana Catarina Pinto
Apotheus, tight, progressive metal from Portugal, has delivered its sequel to The Far Star with the stellar Ergo Atlas.
A coalescence of melody and hard, articulated metal kicks off the continuing saga inspired by science fiction writer Isaac Asimov. The lyrics tell the dynamic story of artificial intelligence rising as a God, threatening human life across the universe years into our future. As a fan of sci-fi with its dynamics of emotion and possibility, I appreciated the saga.
Ergo Atlas is an incredibly well produced album; some may even say overpolished, if you believe in such a thing. Progressive rhythms can be a bit hard to take if an album isn’t carefully coordinated in the studio, and Apotheus achieved a great balance with this one. They present musical alchemy with a near perfect mix of heavy metal grit and atmospheric, Floyd style dreamscapes, and become a little hard to categorize as the story unfolds.
The album has a sound reminiscent of Tool, and takes periodical dives into strong and dark fury when the rhythm jumps in (think Gojira). I’m really impressed by the lyrics; Miguel Andrade’s voice moves easily from melodic baritone to gutteral, evil vociferation. The whole of the band is super tight with creative drumming and great guitar transitions. As a fan of retro prog rock like YES, I prefer progressive metal that doesn’t go too crazy. Apotheus is definitely on the right track.
Photo: Ana Catarina Pinto
I’m happy to see some really good metal music coming out of Portugal… I’ve heard the scene is small, but there’s a lot of quality there. How do you feel about it? What was it like back in 2010?
There is outstanding quality in Portuguese metal music, and you can also clearly see that quality is getting better and better. I sometimes wonder what it would be like if only the “scene” would be bigger, more supportive, accessible and professional. To achieve this level of quality with so few resources at our disposal—it’s incredible. I’m not necessarily talking about Apotheus here. We’ve been blessed by many things and our fans, even though we definitely worked a lot too. I would say that all the members feel that Apotheus from 2010 was a very different band. We’ve learned a lot since then, we elevated our musical and technical standards. Now we’re always striving for “the next level”, which is I think one of the things that really sets us apart from 2010.
How did you guys work to break out beyond the borders and push your reach into Europe?
2019 was a special year in that regard, due to the first record with Swedish label Black Lion Records. The way we did that was to just make the best record we could, and that’s how The Far Star was born. I think the biggest change we had to make was to set the story. Come up with something of your own, an identity, a brand, a story—something that sets you apart. Something you can be known for. For us, that was the sci-fi story we’ve been building up since The Far Star. That gave us both inspiration and guidance. But we feel like there are a lot more barriers that we need to break, even within Europe. We know we need to play live in many countries. There is still so much unexplored territory and so many people that didn’t get to experience the Apotheus universe. We are working on that and are so excited for it.
Ergo Atlas is a very well put together album. How long did it take you guys to get that done?
Thank you! Ergo Atlas took us about 1 year to make. Its composition started in 2021. We did a few sessions where we isolated ourselves in the studio to build the whole concept and the songs. We feel like we raised the bar for ourselves on this record, so it’s very rewarding to see all the positive comments and reviews around the world.
Will we see you in the US in the future?
We most definitely want that experience, even though there are no plans for such a tour at the moment. We have a solid plan for growth, and I’m sure that eventually that will happen. Hope to see you there when that time comes!
In the meantime, you can pick up Ergo Atlas at Bandcamp.
Website at Apotheus.net
