doom
Last night, my and a friend were talking about music and about natural disasters. He had seen a documentary where people claim that the ancient Egyptians transported the massive stones on "sound carpets". According to the narrator, it should be possible to make drones and soundscapes powerful enough to levitate heavy loads. So the question was: "if they can be powerful enough for that, they can be amplified to cause some serious damage like earthquakes and collapsing buildings". It was a frightening thought, and a pleasant one too because that would make doom bands the most powerful acts in the world.
This morning, I loaded the new album by Italian instrumental doom masters Lento into WinAmp. I've known this band for years and several of their tracks often appear in my playlist. 'A Penchant For Persistency' started to play and it immediately took me back to yesterday's conversation. In short: the sound of Lento can flatten mountains, shatter skulls and make water flow upstream. With this new album more than ever before, I think of Lento as the "Godspeed You Black Emperor of doom".
Lento have found the perfect balance between harsh and complex doom metal and gloomy soundscapes. That being said, do not expect these ten tracks to maintain a constant slow tempo. In that, this album has heaps of variation, from blast beats to math rock inspired insanity to death metal resembling hammering. All this while the guitars produce as much noise as they possibly can. The endresult is an immense trip with plenty of unexpected passages and sounds. It immerses the listener in a thick cesspool of riffs, drones and drums.
I'm still not sure about the whole sound levitation theory but I am convinced that 'Fourth' is a brilliant piece of work. For the record, I have to mention that 'Let Bygones Be Bygones (A Grievance)' is my favorite track, probably because I'm mostly an ambient fan and this is the calmest tune on this whole album. Yet, I will obviously recommend this to all fans of doom and post-whatever fans. You just can't go wrong with Lento.
Serge
This morning, I loaded the new album by Italian instrumental doom masters Lento into WinAmp. I've known this band for years and several of their tracks often appear in my playlist. 'A Penchant For Persistency' started to play and it immediately took me back to yesterday's conversation. In short: the sound of Lento can flatten mountains, shatter skulls and make water flow upstream. With this new album more than ever before, I think of Lento as the "Godspeed You Black Emperor of doom".
Lento have found the perfect balance between harsh and complex doom metal and gloomy soundscapes. That being said, do not expect these ten tracks to maintain a constant slow tempo. In that, this album has heaps of variation, from blast beats to math rock inspired insanity to death metal resembling hammering. All this while the guitars produce as much noise as they possibly can. The endresult is an immense trip with plenty of unexpected passages and sounds. It immerses the listener in a thick cesspool of riffs, drones and drums.
I'm still not sure about the whole sound levitation theory but I am convinced that 'Fourth' is a brilliant piece of work. For the record, I have to mention that 'Let Bygones Be Bygones (A Grievance)' is my favorite track, probably because I'm mostly an ambient fan and this is the calmest tune on this whole album. Yet, I will obviously recommend this to all fans of doom and post-whatever fans. You just can't go wrong with Lento.
Serge
