Lotus Thief - Oresteia review
Band: | Lotus Thief |
Album: | Oresteia |
Release date: | January 2020 |
01. Agamemnon
02. Banishment
03. Libation Bearers
04. Woe
05. The Furies
06. Reverence
07. Sister In Silence
08. The Kindly Ones
Tired of Tolkien-inspired metal? Try Aeschylus-inspired metal! Who is Aeschylus? Let's just say he is often described as "the father of tragedy".
Lotus Thief have always been fond of turning to classic literary works for inspiration, often of the ones less approached in metal, thus here we have the trilogy Oresteia, also the namesake of the album, that describes the rise and fall of house Atreus and its king, Agamemnon. And to properly approach this work, Lotus Thief have also gone through a line-up change and expansion from a duo to a full fledged band. And that is clearly felt in how expansive the sound feels now.
The best way to describe the music on Oresteia would be post-metal infused with doom and black and psych, but not threading more in the post than in the metal side of it, while definitely feeling like it tells a great story. The vocals are mostly of the clean kind, though black metal vocals do make their appearance at times, and the expressive vocals are definitely the strongest mean that the album uses to achieve its narrative feeling, but I'd be lying if I said the music isn't extremely evocative with its atmospheres. But as great as the album is with its lush sounds and subtle nuances and intricacies, this is a very vocal-driven album.
There's a lot of enjoyment to be had by listening to Oresteia without giving a damn about its literary inspiration. The post sound of it is extremely seductive in a way, and "expansive" is a word I just cannot use just once to describe this. This twists and turns from beautiful classical pieces to dark ambient to evocative post-rock to vitriolic black metal and back to the wonderful vocals. But there is such a great synergy between the text and the music, with the music being more than a vessel to put ancient texts into music, and the texts being more than just cool stuff to use as lyrics. This is certainly an album worth digging deeper into.
A lot of the kvlt fuzz that the band used to have has been shredded away, but what came in its place is a meditation on downfall that doesn't feel like it could've worked any other way, and the results are just superb.
| Written on 13.01.2020 by Doesn't matter that much to me if you agree with me, as long as you checked the album out. |
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