The point of no return

Loss begets emptiness.

An infinite void feeding on our hopes, leaving only broken dreams and a growing sadness in its wake.

As emptiness spreads like a disease in our mind, it reminds us that our existence is futile, that time will consume all things in the end, leaving an everlasting nothingness.

NEMESIS portrays our unspeakable despair, but goes further. It is the unheard scream of our oceans stripped of all life by the hand of men, the bloodstained ashes of our forests whose life is burning away, the cub bereft of its mother’s warmth, the father without a son.

It is the incarnation of a declining world.

From this despair, we draw an endless strength and our desire for revenge. 

We are Nemesis.

In-depth

A spiritual nemesis

In loss we are never really alone, as we are left with our guilt and the burden that comes with it.

As we ponder on things left unspoken and undone, the void in our heart expands and despair and rage slowly consume us.

As darkness grows, we realise we’ll never be the same again.

Equilibrium

Everything in life is about balance. Our actions bear consequences that we must be ready to face.

Yet it is rarely the case. Instead, it is so easy to simply look away, even when we are aware of the damage we have done.

An acrid statement

We are too far gone. The price nature pays for our species to thrive is way too high.

We are destroying wildlife and beyond, emptying oceans and forests of all their living creatures, thus leading ourselves to our unavoidable extinction.

Years of averting our eyes have led to a point of no return where we have to face the grim consequences of our acts.

Nemesis is a reminder of this accountability.

Listen

8-track LP ”Nemesis” – 45’ 38’’

All songs written and performed by Mind Imperium, except Spirits of the Dead lyrics written by Edgar Allan Poe, and Entangled in the Void lyrics written by John Keats.

Additional vocals by Lenos from Aeon Patronist.

Recorded between February 2021 and April 2021 at Tidalwave Studio and Dark Faery Records studio.

Recorded & mixed by Patrick Damiani at Tidalwave Studio (Carach Angren, Sopor Aeternus, Falkenbach, Rome, …).
Mastered by Robin Schmidt from 24-96 Mastering Studio in June 2021.

Artwork by Bertrand Bouchardeau, and additional design by Gridwise Studio

About us

MIND IMPERIUM is an ambient groove metal band from France, with Nogh (ex-OBNOXIOUS, DEATH OF A DRYAD) on lead vocals and guitars, Carol (ex-NECROBLASPHEME, DEATH OF A DRYAD) on bass guitar and backing vocals and Fabien (PAICAN) on drums and backing vocals.

MIND IMPERIUM story begins in late 2013, with a concept to create a groove metal band in which powerful groove riffs would blend with dark and melancholic ambiences.

The band releases its first EP – Amongst the Ruins – the same year, under the name My Imperium. Well-received by the public and the press, this first attempt allows them to play live extensively.

In 2016, after a few lineup changes and a small hiatus while Nogh and Carol focus on other musical projects and the development of the associative label Dark Faery Records, the band resumes its live activities and starts working on a full-length album. This project is inspired by artists from 19th century like Poe, Lovecraft or Chambers, but also from the works of Freud and Jung. Consequently, My Imperium becomes MIND IMPERIUM, a name more fitting to the band’s unique universe.

In 2018, they release their first LP, « Way To Carcosa », recorded at VAMACARA STUDIO. It explores the diversity of emotions bred by the human mind when confronted with loss, whether it be symbolical or real. It also reflects MIND IMPERIUM sustained engagement in the environmental cause, relating the album theme to damages done by manking to the living world. In partnership with SEA SHEPHERD, the band releases a music video for their song A WAR WITHOUT END, to condemn the Grindadráp.

Right after their album’s release, MIND IMPERIUM goes on tour in France and Belgium with their friends from AEON PATRONIST, in support of both bands latest work.

The band continues touring until COVID hits, and spend the end of 2020 bringing NEMESIS to life. Its recording takes place in Spring 2021 at TIDALWAVE STUDIO.

What they say

PHOTOS & VIDEOS

LYRICS

Thy soul shall find itself alone
’Mid dark thoughts of the gray tombstone—
Not one, of all the crowd, to pry
Into thine hour of secrecy.

Be silent in that solitude,
Which is not loneliness—for then
The spirits of the dead who stood
In life before thee are again
In death around thee—and their will
Shall overshadow thee: be still.

The night, tho’ clear, shall frown—
And the stars shall look not down
From their high thrones in the heaven,
With light like Hope to mortals given—

But their red orbs, without beam,
To thy weariness shall seem
As a burning and a fever
Which would cling to thee for ever

Behold, from the darkness truth unfolds
An eerie silence reigns as in the black of night
Death will come to claim us all

Our blazing fires rise, soothing our shattered minds
Let this world burn till nothing is left
Inhale the pain inside, purify pestilence
Our broken hopes we cannot mend

When the stars align, we fall
(The end of times draws nigh)
When the stars align, we fall
(Together now we die)

As we wander in the dark, our spirit lost in time
Bearing witness to a world that makes no sense no more
Oblivion a comforting thought, the misty shores of Camelot
An empty shell, until we crumble and vanish to dust

Torment, senseless fratricide
Broken wills, wounds open wide
Screaming, all light is gone, our hope is lost
Time has come to fall

Dripping blood stains the land
And my divine offering

Father!
My memories ever clouding my mind
When I’m about to fall, and all seems lost inside

Blessed father, I call to thee in this time of despair
Where everything is fading to a dark and sizzling grey
And all I have left inside is a pain that hurts like hell

All my mistakes and things that I’ve done
I’m blaming this past but the future is gone
Standing alone in the darkness of this room
Still as a stone, I don’t hear your voice calling me
Your voyage closed and done

I’m screaming out your name, but if my hope’s been denied
It carries my tears away, and even through the ether
I will remember by screaming out your name
And if my hope’s been denied even with nothing left,
Nothing left of me, I will remember by screaming out your name

The autumn leaves are falling on the things I wish to forget,
If I only I had seen the bitter truth of this world through candid eyes

Broken down
Some lies are made with the best intentions
But everything we live is futile
Our body and mind are meant to fade away

There is no path to salvation
Our lingering regrets and mistakes
Are all we are left with, until our lifeless soul will fall and break

I’m sorry I don’t see the world as a safe place for me
I’ve been running away for so long that I can’t remember
I found the courage deep within, a way to atone for all my sins
To seal the wound closed once and for all, with burning embers

For what was once will no longer be and all that is left of me
Scattered throughout the wilderness a thousand times stamped over
All the things are said and done, nothing hides the dying sun
A flash of light before my eyes, deep inside the pain resides
Deep inside of me

Tears dried up in my eyes
The fading sun sets in the sky
A blessing in disguise
This emptiness I feel inside
With burning embers / With burning embers

This world will turn into dust, the wind takes everything away
Will you prophesize this day, when all is lost and gone astray?
Our judgement clouded by deceit; a truth perceived so incomplete
The glory fades and disappears, with nothing in its wake
But burning embers

Dead inside, asunder, for there is nothing left of me
Crimson fire, in twilight, a thousand times stamped over

Embers, with burning embers
Here at a standstill I follow my own will
Embers, no one’ll remember
The things we died for
The cycle starts all over

I cannot see what flowers are at my feet,
Nor what soft incense hangs upon the boughs,
But, in embalmed darkness, guess each sweet
Wherewith the seasonable month endows
The grass, the thicket, and the fruit-tree wild;

White hawthorn, and the pastoral eglantine;
Fast fading violets cover’d up in leaves;
And mid-May’s eldest child,
The coming musk-rose, full of dewy wine,
The murmurous haunt of flies on summer eves.

Darkling I listen; and, for many a time
I have been half in love with easeful Death,
Call’d him soft names in many a mused rhyme,
To take into the air my quiet breath;

Now more than ever seems it rich to die,
To cease upon the midnight with no pain,
While thou art pouring forth thy soul abroad
In such an ecstasy!

Still wouldst thou sing, and I have ears in vain—
To thy high requiem become a sod.

Thou wast not born for death, immortal Bird!
No hungry generations tread thee down;
The voice I hear this passing night was heard
In ancient days by emperor and clown:
Perhaps the self-same song that found a path
Through the sad heart of Ruth, when, sick for home,
She stood in tears amid the alien corn;

In everlasting snow
We found what we were meant to be
The heart of this world, look deep inside you’ll see
Led astray by gold you’ll never find
Fade away like steps on crimson snow

This song echoes within me
Tame your callous heart and mind
Down in this watery grave lies all we’ll ever know

And the ocean bleeds once more
When the snow turns scarlet red
Whispers never find an answer

The mother dies
Bodies before me
In this watery grave

Now that we’re fallen from grace, one day the bill is due
No place in heaven is being kept for you
Sell your soul for what it’s worth weight in gold
And for this empty fame, the dying of a world

I have seen beyond the bounds of infinity and drowned,
Drawing daemons down from the stars

When the day turns dark
Follow the patriarch
And as we heed the call
Echoes in the hall
Through the shades of night
The fire burning bright
Under a moonlit sky
Where the lonely dies, the pack survives

Frozen rivers of winter ice, on the edge of forever,
Out in the wilderness into the storm we wander

In the twilight, no wrong or right
On the other side, our frozen worlds collide

Pain, I feel that pain
Nature in our heart is made of gold
Stained by acid rain
Nature in our heart will grow tenfold

Lost in the sands of time now and forever
Till there is nothing left, memories long gone
Dead silence fills our solitude
Meaningless lives stranded on blackened shores
We pray for more

Ever the never
This nothingness of a soul
Like raindrops in the drought

Abandon hopes and enter here
Sounds of echoes disappear into the void
We are all meant to rise and fall
Infinite loneliness
The haunting emptiness reigns over our hearts