LOCUST LEAVES — A Subtler Kind of Light (review)

LOCUST LEAVES — A Subtler Kind of Light album cover

Album · 2017 · Progressive Metal

4.5/5 · 2017-02-28
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Record labels don't usually get me excited in themselves. Most of my long-time favourite bands don't share a label and many have moved between multiple labels in their time and that's if they aren't even just releasing their music themselves, as is common these days. Most of time I probably couldn't tell you what label even my favourite releases were put out on. It's just not something I pay attention to. There's one notable label that has become an exception to this though and that's Italy's I, Voidhanger Records. Home of the likes of Mare Cognitum, Spectral Lore, Howls of Ebb, Lorn and Midnight Odyssey to name just a handful, a string of excellent releases, mostly within the black metal genre, has had me paying close attention to everything this label puts out. I can't say that everything I've heard from them has suited my musical palate but a lot of the stuff has not only been excellent but also some of the most interesting albums I've heard in the last few years. This includes Spectral Lore's mammoth double album III (2014). Already they have put out two of this year's best black metal albums in Lorn's Arrayed Claws (2017) and Todesstoß' Ebne Graun (2017).

The latest I, Voidhanger Records released album to grace my eardrums is A Subtler Kind of Light (2017) by Greek act Locust Leaves. This two piece band that consists of vocalist Nick K. and instrumentalist Helm were previously heard of when they appeared on a split with Spectral Lore in 2012 but until now that was all that has been heard from them. On A Subtler Kind of Light they are joined by sole Spectral Lore member Ayloss on guest lead guitar, but those expecting the double association with their countryman to yield any kind of similar results may be in for a surprise, as A Subtler Kind of Light can only be described as a progressive metal album.

Offering up plenty of technicality on one hand, the band further expand the scope of their music by including elements of a number of other genres and blending them seamlessly together. An atmospheric black metal feel here (opener Light (Fos) actually does have an instrumental section reminiscent of some of Spectral Lore's III), an aggressive death metal element there (especially in third track Fall (Ptosi) which really switches things up towards the extreme side of the band) and even the pure ambient track Flight (Ptisi) to close the whole thing off. A Subtler Kind of Light may be a short four track release of about thirty-five minutes, but it has more ideas packed into it than most albums twice its length. Nick K's vocals share the varied style of the music, switching between theatrical, epic cleans, blackened rasps and death growling. It's a fun album to explore because it quickly asserts that you never know where it's going to go and upon it's conclusion there's only one course of action left: listen to the whole thing again to make sure you really just heard that.

I've been thinking that progressive metal was stagnating over the last few years with nothing really awe inspiring and original coming out of it any more. Some good albums but nothing that really blew me away. Locust Leaves just changed that with A Subtler Kind of Light. This one has more extreme metal elements than the kind of albums I was really feeling that stagnation thing about, but the first two clean vocal dominant tracks do place it more on the same page as the traditional progressive metal acts out there than the extreme progressive death and black metal types (from which there have been some very good albums in the same time period), so consider the genre to have just been given the good kick up the arse it so desperately needed.