BitterJalapeno “The Tiger’s Daughter” is the fourth full length release by one-man progressive metal machine Brett Windnagle, otherwise known as Lascaille's Shroud. Windnagle stated that the mood he was attempting to project on this single-track epic was reflective of the emotions he experienced whilst reading a trilogy of fantasy novels by K. Arsenault Rivera which focuses on the ups and downs of a romantic relationship between two female Oriental warriors. He certainly did not fail in his endeavours as this is one hell of an emotional journey through sound, encompassing both dark and light realms while maintaining an impressive level of cohesion throughout.

A wide range of musical influences is explored, including but by no means limited to death metal, progressive metal, classic heavy metal, post-rock, and traditional Oriental folk. The bulk of the music is slow to mid-paced death metal with riffs and chord progressions that steadily chug along underneath brutal death growls. Also present is the classic death metal technique of tremolo picking but, in this case, it is not overused, adding variety rather than being a mainstay. The inclusion of synthesisers provides an atmospheric background to the whole experience while the use of Oriental elements - possibly a koto - add a touch of authenticity to the subject matter.

There are few guitar solos throughout the album, but lack of quantity is more than compensated for by the quality as when they appear, they soar to great heights, displaying effective use of melody in contrast to the brutality of death metal while also drawing some influence from the classic heavy metal of the 80s. Even though I have not read the novel in question, I imagine that Windnagle created these solos to mirror the most joyous parts of the novel’s narrative and has done so with great success. Further adding contrast are piano-led segments – reminiscent of the softer side of 90s and 00s post-rock acts such as Mogwai – which bring moments of calm to the album and maintains the listener’s interest as the journey continues. The greatest contrast, however, is the inclusion of clean vocals which are provided by Mercedes Victoria. Her soft voice adds huge volumes of emotion, simultaneously producing a true sense of love, pain, and longing.

To conclude, it can’t be denied that “The Tiger’s Daughter” is an excellent example of genre-fusion with a commendable level of cohesion. Although not something I would typically have sought out as general listening, I found it a most captivating listen where many musical styles are brought together in unexpected coexistence.

adg211288 Having released two albums in relatively quick succession, the third album by one man sci-fi themed progressive death metal act Lascaille's Shroud, titled The Roads Leading North (2016), has been said to represent a fresh start for the project. Though there are some conceptual ties to what went before, musician Brett Windnagle has stated on the Lascaille's Shroud Facebook page that the first two Lascaille's Shroud were planned as far back as 2005. So it could be interpreted that The Roads Leading North is aimed to be the album that takes his music to the next level. Like the previous work the album has been released digitally, with a physical CD release being successfully crowd-funded over the course of the two months prior to its release date (of which this reviewer is a proud backer who can't wait to get his hands on the physical copy).

Listening to The Roads Leading North I definitely think that there have been some noticeable changes in the Lascaille's Shroud sound, while still being a work recognisable as being by the same artist. The music sounds to me to be a bit less rooted in death metal and more in the kind of extreme progressive metal zone like classic Opeth (though this sounds nothing like Opeth, the general feeling of balance between the death metal and the progressive metal is similar), that is to say a prominent use of growling vocals, but also more clean vocals than death metal would usually allow and the also music seems to transcend being death metal thanks to the number of other influences that creep in. I have always thought the occasional non-death metal influence could be heard in different parts of Lascaille's Shroud's music, but Windnagle has taken it even further on this album.

This is a shift that is made clear early on with Restrain the Child, which uses some growls but is largely dominated by clean singing. To compare this to the previous album Interval 02: Parallel Infinities - The Abscinded Universe (2014), it took until the fifth track for clean vocals to be used at all, but on The Roads Leading North they're heard first. Restrain the Child also proves to be an early highlight of the album. Along with the dominant clean vocal approach to the track it also showcases one of the new touches to Lascaille's Shroud's music that I mentioned above, one that I haven't associated with the project before: power metal. Fast, melodic music with epic clean vocals. It stands in contrast to much of the material on The Roads Leading North, which quickly reaffirms Windnagle's death metal loyalties with the following The Neon City, Part 1: Dreams.

The use of synths on the album is familiar in the way there are both electronic (the spacey Sketches of Madness proves quite the unexpected treat) and symphonic based elements, but I feel that there are even more atmospheric sections created with them this time. Windnagle certainly captures his sci-fi themes well musically. I want to bring highlight to Compass, an instrumental piece that precedes the aforementioned Restrain the Child, for this, especially the section with the voice-over starting at around two minutes in, after a full on progressive metal intro, which later moves on into a spacey non-metal section. Definitely a killer duo of songs these two.

All the elements of previous Lascaille's Shroud music and then some are accounted for on The Roads Leading North, with the icing on the cake being a more polished production job that suits the music perfectly. It's fair to call Lascaille's Shroud a DIY act in all ways as Windnagle handles literally everything here apart from guest vocalist roles for John Yelland (Judicator, Dire Peril, Disforia) and Patrick Parris (Project: Roenwolfe), both of whom have worked with Windnagle before, and it's clear that his skills have improved with this release.

As a double disc album like the previous one, The Roads Leading North contains a lot of music to take in. It's a massive release with over two hours of music and fourteen tracks including the epic length When Sleep Takes Us which clocks in at 25:02, which takes up a good chunk of the second disc on its own. When something is this long (meaning the album, not just that one track) it's always a good indication about the quality when there is absolutely no desire to try and take it in stages instead of in one go, which is certainly the case as I've found it here.

I've name-dropped a few of the tracks already, but I can't conclude this review without drawing special attention to the likes of Unspeakably Defiled, What Dwells Beneath Her Flesh, the title track and both parts of The Neon City as well. I think that's actually most of the album's fourteen tracks at least mentioned in this review, which should be another indicator of the releases' strengths. If I haven't mentioned a track by name that certainly doesn't mean there's anything lesser about it of course. If I'm honest I could easily write something about each track individually for this album, as each feels like such an integral part of the complete picture, even the shorter ones that start each disc that could be called intro tracks, but I'm passing one thousand words on this review as is. Long albums like this run the risk of being overblown but this one avoids that problem. My review should do the same.

I was a big fan of the last album and I also liked the first album Interval 01: Parallel Infinities - The Inner Universe (2013) a lot also, but it's been clear to me since even my first listen to it that The Roads Leading North is the most accomplished Lascaille's Shroud album so far, and further listens haven't shaken that belief, only cemented it. Not only is the sound expanded and more polished, but the familiar elements feel fresher, which is a marked difference to my experience when first hearing Interval 02 compared to Interval 01, where it was more like a logical continuation in sound as well as name. 2016 has already proved to be a better year for music for me than last year with several top tier releases already discovered, but this one man band who for some reason doesn't even have a record label just usurped the lot of them.

UMUR "Interval 02: Parallel Infinities - The Abscinded Universe" is the 2nd full-length studio album by US progressive death metal act Lascaille's Shroud. The album was released through Masters of Metal Productions in January 2014. Lascaille's Shroud is a one-man project act featuring Brett Windnagle who handles guitars, bass, drums (programmed), keyboards and vocals. He is helped out by a host of guest vocalists and Tyler Sherrill who plays keyboard solos, but otherwise this is a solo album in the true sense of the word. Lascaille's Shroud has existed for a couple of years and already have quite a few minor releases and the "Interval 01: Parallel Infinities - The Inner Universe (2013)" debut album on the street. In keeping with the release method for previous releases "Interval 02: Parallel Infinities - The Abscinded Universe" is offered as a digital "Name Your Price" download on the artist´s Bandcamp profile.

While "Interval 01: Parallel Infinities - The Inner Universe (2013)" was a long album featuring long tracks, "Interval 02: Parallel Infinities - The Abscinded Universe" takes that concept even further. With it´s approximately 2 hours playing time it´s safe to say that it´s a massive release by Lascaille's Shroud. Out of the 10 tracks on the album there are several that exceed the 10 minutes mark and two ther exceed the 20 minutes mark. While that´s a lot to take in if you opt to listen to the album in one run, there is good variation to be found on the album and the entertainment level seldom drops during the album´s playing time.

The material are generally well performed and for the most part well written (there are too many unremarkable filler riffs and sections, but when Lascaille's Shroud shine, they shine brightly). Stylistically the music is sci-fi themed progressive death metal, featuring complex song structures and a generally adventurous approach to writing music. The vocals are predominantly intelligible growling and more snarling type growling, but some of the guest vocalists perform raw thrash type male vocals, clean male vocals, and clean female vocals too. Keyboards/synths are still a major part of the soundscape, although I generally think they are toned down a bit compared to how they sounded on the predecessor.

I had an issue with the programmed drums and the sound production on "Interval 01: Parallel Infinities - The Inner Universe (2013)" and unfortunately I have the same issue regarding "Interval 02: Parallel Infinities - The Abscinded Universe". Some drum parts actually work pretty well, which is especially true when the guitar plays tremolo picked riffs. That´s when you can nearly forget, that the drums are programmed, but as soon as the pace is lowered or even worse when more rythmic thrashy riffing is introduced, it becomes apparent, in the bad way, that the drums are programmed. Some of those parts sound downright amaturish. There are some parts where I have a feeling that the guitars/bass and the drums are out of synch and as a consequence those parts sound untight. It´s pretty odd when it happens, because as mentioned above the material are generally well played/sung.

The sound production is slightly more dark than the case was on the predecessor, which is a plus in my book, but unfortunately the issue regarding the dynamics of the production hasn´t been solved. As a consequence the mix sounds a bit flat and undefined. Everything sounds like it´s delivered on the same volume all the way through the album and it makes for a somewhat unengaging listen. There is no doubt that a producer who could guide, create a dynamic mix, and cut some of the filler sections, could work wonders. Add to that a human drummer and Lascaille's Shroud would be among the most interesting progressive death metal acts out there. As it is now I am stretching with a 3.5 star (70%) rating, but I do feel that the band´s adventurous songwriting approach should be rewarded, and while my criticism may seem hard, it hopefully doesn´t completely disguise the fact that I actually appreciate a lot of what I hear on "Interval 02: Parallel Infinities - The Abscinded Universe". The issues need to be adressed though for the project to move on to the next stage.

adg211288 Interval 02: Parallel Infinities - The Abscinded Universe (2014) is the second full-length album by US one man progressive death metal act Lascaille's Shroud. The album continues the science fiction themes of prior release Interval 01: Parallel Infinities - The Inner Universe (2013). Presumably as a follow-up concept album that means heavy inspiration from the novels of Alastair Reynolds and video games, although unlike the first album which drew on Mass Effect this one features elements of Bioshock Infinite, which a particular focus on the character of Elizabeth.

The prior album was an ambitious release of progressive death metal which also drew on electronic and symphonic elements, with a complete run-time of about 73 minutes. How does one top something like that so early in their career? Well the answer is simpler than you may think really; release a double album's worth of material to follow it up, with just over two hours of music in total. Oh, and include two over twenty minute compositions in that running time. And feature a ton of guest vocalists. And still release it under the free/name your price scheme (A CD release has recently been funded via the Indiegogo website, of which this reviewer is a proud contributor, but at the time of writing the album is only available digitally). Yeah...

The musician behind the project is called Brett Windnagle (also of Kingdoms of Flesh and more recently, Vermiform) and if his last album wasn't enough to convince you of his talent, then this follow-up, which from now on I'm just going to refer to as simply The Abscinded Universe, looks set to do the job. It's not going to be an easy listen even if you're already familiar with its predecessor and I believe you can be forgiven if you need to digest it in parts, perhaps between the two twenty plus minute epics which appear back to back in the middle of the tracklist, but there should be no doubt of Windnagle's compositional skill, as like with The Inner Universe he never wastes a second of the running time and if you can find a spare couple of hours to take it all in during a single sitting, well all I can really say is that it's not only very doable but also incredibly worth it.

The music itself comes across as having less influences from electronic music this time, but they are still present to a degree, as are symphonic elements although the album sees them used for effect only; it's never really the case that Brett takes his music into a full on symphonic death metal direction. Instead this is largely driven by the riffs across complex song structures, with soloing from both guitars and keyboards (performed by Tyler Sherrill of Steamforged), atmosphere elements, clean vocals and Bioshock Infinite dialogue all thrown in for added effect. The music sticks mostly to a death metal backbone, but as with The Inner Universe there are also shades of other extreme metal genres here and even a couple of places where the music is fast and melodic that brings mind to power metal.

The average running time of a Lascaille's Shroud track on The Abscinded Universe is in excess of seven minutes (some shorter ones were featured on The Inner Universe as well as the non-album single Colossal (2013)) so everything on here is at least a mini-epic in its own right. The exception would be the final track of the album The Guilt Reprisal, which is the only track between the two Interval albums that breaks the naming convention of a one word title following by a longer sub-title, which mostly consists of dialogue from Bioshock Infinite, following by a period of silence, then more dialogue as a hidden track. Most tracks exceed or come close to the ten minute marker, with War: A Congregation of Non-Existence passing twenty minutes and Agony: The Sad and Beautiful Face of Death going up to over twenty-five. The music remains incredibly focussed all the way and sounds utterly stunning in regard to everything from the production to the musicianship.

Brett has furthered the science fiction vibe in his music by applying effects to his growling vocals in some of the tracks, heard as early as the opening Integration: Into the Posthuman Continuum. I have to admit this was the one aspect of the album that I wasn't convinced by at first, but given the themes that Lascaille's Shroud's music revolves around I quickly came to appreciate just what Brett had achieved by doing this, although I can't get the image of a pissed off robot out of my head now (it carries a guitar laser gun too). That's what the effect comes across as, robotic. I'm not sure everyone is going to like the effect, but it's only semi-common on the album and most of the vocals sound as you'd expect, deep and powerful death growling.

There are a greater number of voices on The Abscinded Universe compared to the two featured on The Inner Universe, with seven in total. While Brett handles most of the growling he does have a couple of guests also doing growls/harsh vocals, but most guests are here to provide clean singing, with male and female voices featured in different tracks, with Agony: The Sad and Beautiful Face of Death, featuring the most (five). Given Brett's association with the Masters of Metal Productions label, it should be no surprise to find vocalists from the label's acts such as Judicator's John Yelland, Vermiform's Bryan Edwards, and Project: Roenwolfe's Patrick Hoyt Parris featured here, as well as Tony C who is/has been involved in all three of those acts among others.

Patience is definitely required to get the most out of The Abscinded Universe so I have to be fair, the album's appeal may be cut down somewhat by simply being too ambitious. Personally though I've found it to be one of the finest works of progressive death metal ever released; a rare case where the death and progressive elements are blended in such a way that the album should have equal appeal with fans from both crowds. You get bands such as Augury and Obscura that clearly have much more to do with death metal than their progressive sides and then you get the Opeth and The Advent Equation types that have more to do with prog and then you get Lascaille's Shroud who meets both half way. I very much doubt they'll be another album quite like this in 2014. I certainly can't foresee any other group releasing something with more ambition than this. The Abscinded Universe is easily one up on The Inner Universe - an album that I was already greatly impressed with - and I can't find any reason why five stars are not in order.

97/100

(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven: http://metaltube.freeforums.org/lascaille-s-shroud-the-abscinded-universe-t3322.html)

UMUR "Interval 01: Parallel Infinities - The Inner Universe" is the debut full-length studio album by US progressive extreme metal act Lascaille's Shroud. The album was released in collaboration with Masters of Metal Productions in January 2013. "Interval 01: Parallel Infinities - The Inner Universe" is available at a "Name Your Price" tag on the band´s Bandcamp profile. Lascaille's Shroud is a one-man act consisting of Brett Windnagle (Sedulity) who plays Guitars, Bass, Drums, Synths and Keyboards and sings the extreme metal type vocals on the album. He is helped out here by Patrick Hoyt Parris (Project: Roenwolfe, ex-Theocracy) who sings the non-extreme type vocals on the album and by Tyler Sherrill who plays a Keyboard solo on "Epilogue: The Acceptance of Death".

The music on the album is sci-fi themed progressive extreme metal. I label this extreme metal because even though there are elements from both death and black metal, this is really neither. The song structures are unconventional and quite surprising at times, but as a consequence some of the tracks also feel a bit fragmented. Several of the tracks exceed the 10 minutes mark and with many changes and different sections in the tracks, "Interval 01: Parallel Infinities - The Inner Universe" is an album that takes time to get into. Add to that the fact that "Interval 01: Parallel Infinities - The Inner Universe" is a concept album and that there are elements from all sorts of metal styles like progressive metal, power metal, avantgarde metal, death metal, black metal and symphonic metal on the album and you´re pretty surely in for a challenging sonic experience. The addition of guest vocalist Patrick Hoyt Parris is a brilliant move and one of the great assets of the album. His clean and rusty screaming type vocals provide a completely different atmosphere to the growling and aggressive vocals delivered by Brett Windnagle.

The music features quite a lot of synths/keyboards which provide it with an epic atmosphere and they are central elements in the band´s sound. Lascaille's Shroud generally produce a huge wall of sound and if you enjoy your music basic and to the point, you should look elsewhere. The album doesn´t sound fully professionally produced to my ears but all instruments and vocals are clear in the mix. The programmed drums do sound a bit artificial though and after a while the digital nature of the drumming does result in the music sounding a bit static. There´s simply not the drive in the music that a human drummer can produce.

"Interval 01: Parallel Infinities - The Inner Universe" features 7 tracks and a full playing time of 72:55 minutes, which makes for a very long listening experience and as mentioned above, several of the tracks are really long. It´s a lot to take in and even though Lascaille's Shroud understand the importance of variation, some tracks do feel too long and could probably have prospered from being cut down to the essentials. So upon conclusion I´m a bit biased towards "Interval 01: Parallel Infinities - The Inner Universe". In many ways is a greatly adventurous and charmingly bold one-man project release, but there are features like the programmed drums, the sound production (which is actually decent and only a minor issue) and the fact that the tracks too often overstay their welcome, that result in the album being a mixed bag. Interesting but flawed. Still a 3.5 star (70%) rating is fully deserved.