Gallifrey ♥ ♥ ♥

Lantlôs were one of the many bands that French musician Neige brought to the forefront in the original blackgaze movement, but were honestly the only one I could never really get into. I guess I didn’t really give them an awful lot of time, but of the one album I heard (2010’s .neon), I wasn’t entirely enthralled by the heavy reliance on harsh vocals and black metal riffing, but I understand if Neige wanted an output to throw his most kvlt and frostbitten music. But now, come 2014, Neige has left the band to continue full-time with Alcest, giving Markus Siegenhort (aka Herbst) full control over the band and its direction. And honestly, the way he’s taking it is a tad ironic.

Melting Sun, as essentially a shoegaze/post-rock record with metal undertones, points rather directly at Shelter, the latest record from Alcest, both in its production, use of fully clean vocals, absence of blast beats, and gloriously sunny cover. Although Alcest managed to avoid this by only have sun in their cover, Lantlos have buried themselves straight into the new blackgaze subgenre of Pinkgaze ♥ ♥ ♥ (yes the hearts are part of the name), following the likes of Deafheaven and An Autumn for Crippled Children down into a blissful sea of pink and gaze.

But as much as this record does seem to be following a trend, I do like it, although not quite as much as the latest Alcest album. Markus makes his point of difference particularly in his vocal delivery, as well as some rather post-metal like heavy sections, with nearly no black metal to be found. The one thing that this album does that a lot of these nu-gaze albums are missing is clear vocals. I’ll admit I’m a fan of a shitton of reverb in my music, and I do love the Alcest records where you honestly can’t hear a single part of the vocals, but it’s just become a cliché. To hear the singing hear float so nicely over the instrumentation, clear in tone and in lyric, is a real breath of fresh air, for the same reasons I praised Neal Halstead’s inclusion in the latest Alcest record. And it brings the vocal melodies so far forward, too – and there are some stunning ones here. The ending of “Cherry Quartz” brings some wonderful vocals in after a long (and oftentimes tedious) post-rock build for the first half. And the melody is absolutely beautiful, in every way, rivaling some of Alcest’s best melodies at their peak. It lifts the song up so much, and nearly forgives that meandering intro with its beauty. But honestly, if I have a nitpick, it’s that I don’t really like the thick and almost djenty bass tone that comes through this part – it should be smoother, dreamier.

And that’s the other thing – the heavy tones on this record. During some of the more metal sections of this album, evident during “Azure Chimes” as well as the first half of the aforementioned “Cherry Quarts”, the tones are huge and meaty, reminding me the most of Russian Circles, and even pushing ever so slightly into djenty sounds – although the guitars are certainly never used in a djent-like fashion. And while it’s a nice change to the blurred and frantic blast beats and tremolo riffs that many blackgaze bands utilise, I can’t say it’s honestly all too good, or all too fitting with this kind of music.

My other big issue with this album is how sometimes it feels like it simply isn’t trying. I’ll admit that I love the melodies and the chord progressions to bits, but sometimes there just is such a lack of energy in it, particularly in the wanky first half of “Cherry Quartz”, as well as the last couple of tracks. They’re all pleasant listening, as music of this style generally tends to be, but I can’t really enjoy them more than that – as ambient background noise. There are obviously other nitpicks that I have – “Aquamarine Towers” fading out is a completely stupid decision, the china cymbal in “Azure Chimes” is massively distracting, and all the songs have pretty much the same intro with the same building ambience.

On the whole, the melodies and brilliant emotions on this record definitely outweigh the annoying aesthetic decisions with the way they are arranged, and it’s definitely a solid album worth your time. If you’re sick of shoegaze having indiscernible vocals, then this is a must-hear, or maybe if you’re a fan of Russian Circles-style post-metal, but I know that the melody that closes “Cherry Quartz”, as well as the main one in “Jade Fields” are amongst the best melodies I’ve heard this year.

7.0

Originally written for my facebook page/blog: facebook.com/neoprogisbestprog

Andyman1125 Melodic black metal?

Lantlos' sophomore effort, .Neon, is a rather peculiar album. The band seems to be a rather interesting mix of experimental and melodic metal and a crushing and harsh mix of black metal. With screeching high black growls and actually quite nice instrumentation backing it, it's hard to decide whether the album presents a pleasant contrast or a horrid discordance. A few select passages are nice, but the overwhelming majority is a sad and near-painful amalgam of melody and dissonance - and not the good kind.

The album opens with Minusmensch, the first taste of the band's fusion of good melody and.... not so good melody. The song constantly bombards you with some interesting, if not somewhat strained, instrumentation backing some rather traditional black vocals, contrasting the melody in a very harsh, but not quite beautiful, way. The instrumental sections are the obvious plus to this song, and the whole album in general, adding a slight twinge of progginess and melodic experimentation.

These Nights Will Be Ours is another meloblack fusion track (rhyme win). The black metal vocals seem to be in better accord with the more depressing nature of the track, giving it an edge of downright experimentation, with even some heavy post-rock ambiance mixed in. The song seems to soar a little higher than Minusmensch, with a more melodic guitar backing and some great ambient guitars, some of the very little ambient guitar work I actually enjoy (I could never get into post-rock). Overall, this song presents a strong effort in the band's experimental category, fusing even more feels and influences for a highly dynamic track.

Pulse/Surreal is just that, a pulsing and almost surreal black metal ride. With some obvious influences from the likes of maudlin of the Well and Agalloch, the band institutes clean vocals, both a great relief to hurting ears and a pleasant surprise of melodic beauty. The band doesn't hesitate to modulate into a more.... screechy tone with the reinstitution of the black metal vocals, adding an unnecessary contrast to something that easily could have been fantastic and beautiful. The song does taper into a post-rock zone that is something I have come to expect from the genre - lengthy and unnecessary ambient sections that ruin any somewhat melodic sections, but overall the song is a strong effort, with a few down points.

Neige De Mars slips into territory I don't really like. The song blends the boring aspect of post-rock with the screechy aspect of black metal to make a less than stomachable mix. The music is quite harsh at times, lacking the pleasantries of melodic instrumental sections and instead substituting a sleep-inducing post-rock jam. The song has very few high points, with most of the song.

Coma breaks the monotony with a harder driving and more pure black metal track, although post-rock and some more melodic experimentation is still seen. The song presents a little less creativity in it's standard-sounding pop-punk chord progression and a little less creative instrumentation as seen in the earlier tracks of the album. The song has up points, but presents one of the less inventive and more "run-of-the-mill" depressing black metal tracks on the album.

Neon, the epic title and closer track, is instrumental and oozes the creativity in the instrumentation that the band showed in the beginning of the album. Without the black screeches, the instrumental side of the band is able to soar and excel in its position in the band: to smother you in creative post-rock/metal experimentation and melodic funzies. The band is able to mesh the post-rock they had in most of the album with the "better" and more enjoyable experimental metal.

AlBUM OVERALL: Lantlos had come back with a rather interesting album. The album has both very high points and very (very) low points. The band has an obvious fondness for post-rock, and is also obviously intent on fusing this with their black-metal roots. At points, this becomes a great experimental mastery with just a small lack of really creative melody, and at times it creates a near-horrid fusion of dissonance and ambiance. Overall, the album is really a balance between great and gross, making an overall good, but really not very necessary album. 3 stars.

Vehemency Lantlôs’ debut album provided some sweet avantgardish and somewhat depressive black metal and now on the second album, .neon, Herbst continues his exploration of urban decay. It is respectable how well he handles all the instruments: the drumming still shines with its somewhat complex rhythm patterns (”These Nights Were Ours”) and fierce, tight blast beats, and he also succeeds with the Lantlôs trade mark guitar sound - buzzy, droney guitar work of which melodies are sometimes hard to distinguish on first several spins.

On .neon, we can hear some almost jazzy, jamming parts such as in the beginning of the album when ”Minusmensch” kicks in, and during the third track ”Pulse / Surreal” that is also one of the highlight moments on the album. I had my doubts about Neige singing on this album (I wouldn’t have wanted to hear a half-assed Amesoeurs duplicate) but he does good job anyways delivering both clean singing and his unique screaming. Despite the fact that Lantlôs has now such a known person handling vocal duties, .neon still sounds as Lantlôs as always.

I’m afraid .neon is not as captivating record as its predecessor was - this album seems to have a lack of some seriously good melodies - but it is a worthy album anyways. I am almost certainly sure that fans of post-rockish / shoegazing black metal will consider this as pure joy for their ears. I am not as convinced as I wanted to be but my expectations might have been too high. I think there is already a third album coming up and I’m definitely willing to hear in which direction they go from here.