siLLy puPPy Right from the getgo the strange Dutch band LASTER was pulled in many musical directions but managed to settle between the disparate genres of depressive black metal and the world of post-punk to create a musical tug-of-war of dominating forces. These mystery men who dress like serial killers from silent film horror flicks emerged from Utrecht in the Netherlands in 2012 and have incrementally taken their bizarre take on the world of kvlt black metal into strange new worlds much in the vein of some of the most unconventional Norwegian acts that went a similar route such as Dodheimsgard and Arcturus.

While shrieking the sounds of pain on the debut “De Verste Verte Is Her” in true depressive black metal form, even at this early stage LASTER found it impossible to crank out an album’s worth of similarly themed music and added an almost unrecognizable post-punk track to the end as if this bipolar band was channeling the spirits of some unseen forces that are vying for control of the creative process. Whatever the case these guys have always been weird and rather than developing an inferiority complex have opted wisely to simply embrace it and let the chips fall where they may. Well the chips have fallen and landed in a most bizarre place, that being on the band’s fourth album ANDERMANS MIJNE (“Another Man’s Face”).

While bearing some resemblance to traditional black metal, album #4 has basically thrown out all the rules and completely disregarding any kind of genre relationship and instead has decided to craft a cauldron of undetectable elements simmered down into a witch’s brew so hypnotizing that anyone attempting a classification process of what exactly LASTER is concocting on its Island of Dr Moreau will fall flat on their face and declare utter defeat. While theatrics has always been a part of the band’s legendary underground charm, the antics have long extended beyond the unusually unique appearance and now incorporated into every aspect of the music and its idiosyncratic mix. Post-punk constructs fortified by black metal tones and guitar swells may be the largest inhabitants of ANDERMANS MIJNE but the album features no raspy shrieks, guttural growls or any metal vocalizations whatsoever this time around.

Finding some kind of truce between all those black metal and post-punk separations, the band retains the jangled guitar tones of black metal but somehow develops somewhat danceable albeit angular groovy rhythms. Decked out with prog and jazz with moments where both shine, the band also rocks the psychedelic trippiness unlike anything they’ve attempted in the past. Verging most on the doorsteps of black metal turned avant-garde outsiders Dodheimsgard, LASTER has embraced the art of hairpin turns and unexpected and every possibility of the element of surprise is what seems to dominate on ANDERMANS MIJNE. Obviously this is some kind of liberation movement moment for the band where they break free from any perceived shackles that tied them to any sort of musical pigeonholing. Free from the confines of genre gravity, the band floats precariously aloof but sheer determination keeps the party energetic and at least focused enough to not wander to far into the prodigious universe of non-metal related musical camps too much and too far astray.

Ultimately ANDERMANS MIJNE is like one of those old-school rickety roller coasters at a classic theme park that is so jittery that you’re too busy holding on to dear life to pay attention to the amazing scenery passing by. The album takes too many liberties and deviations from the norm to be fully comprehended on a single spin. Are they the new Blood Ceremony? The new Faith No More? The new Killing Joke? Dodheimsgard? Well all of the above and none of the above and then some. This is the new LASTER and while they may be moving faster i don’t really think that this is a disaster. While they don’t truly master and do raise the blaster they don’t really shoot the target like a forecaster. Perhaps a quizmaster in a house made of plaster but the circus has come and they are the ringmaster. Weirdo art rock / metal is in the house.