ALBUM REVIEW: Dialogues From Beyond – Lifelost
WORMED vocalist Phlegeton is a man of many talents; as well as being the vocalist for one of the premier brutal death metal acts, he’s in a plethora of bands performing either vocals or backing up excellent records with his thunderous drumming. His latest act, LIFELOST, sees him write and perform entire records of acerbic and caustic black metal. The band’s debut album, Dialogues From Beyond, is an exercise in ferocity and intricate, imaginative black metal musicianship, and genuinely gives plenty of his black metal contemporaries a serious run for their money.
Malign Emanatio doesn’t mess around, bursting out of the speakers with an intensity and fierceness that jumps out at the listener. This track is incredibly powerful, with tight, intricate drumming and bleak, dirging guitar hooks creating a solid wall of noise, with some utterly dense and bestial vocals adding to the sound greatly. This is a robust and impressive slab of blackened death metal with some catchy, groove-laden guitars that sets the tone right off the bat, and makes a great first impression. Sepulchral Vault continues in a similar vein to the previous song, sprawling, monolithic rhythmic motifs, peppered with sharp, grating dissonant flourishes creating a suitably haunting and visceral sound. Tar thick gutturals help to beef out the already substantial sound, and overall, this is a track that sounds, despite its caustic speed and vicious riffs, suitably epic and dark from start to finish.
Released From Life, a relatively measured, mid-tempo affair by this records standards, reduces the pace and opts for fuller chords and a steady drum metre to create a sound that is every bit as hypnotic as it is acerbic. With shrill, tremolo picked lead guitars, there’s certainly plenty more adventurous musicianship on here, with the sound leaning slightly more towards a unadulterated black metal sound than the last two tracks, which were more rooted in a blackened death metal sound. This is an excellent, engrossing track with lots of great, memorable moments to sink your teeth into.
Metanoia has a glorious, almost uplifting feel to it, which gives it more of a post-black metal sound, with some arid and deep vocals being the only thing on here that possesses any concrete, tangible darkness. It’s a great change of pace that adds even more variety to the album, with the grandiose yet sombre and bleak edge adding a little darkness to proceedings. As the song progresses, heavier tones and playing styles are utilised, making sure that this song slowly but surely gets darker and more aggressive as it heads towards its climactic moments. There’s some brilliant guitar work on here, with some intricate, dancing drumming patterns complimenting the scope of the sound provided by the guitars incredibly well.
It’s an excellent penultimate powerhouse that sets the listener up for the fifth and final track, Incorporeal Gate; this is a song that manages to balance its sound really well between the ferocious and crushing sound that characterised the first two or three songs, and the light, sublime moments that opt for use of cleaner tones that was heard on the preceding song. There’s a really solid base of death metal that accounts for the dense and oppressive rhythm section on this song, with some razor sharp and acidic black metal motifs mixed in for good measure. It’s a brilliant piece of music to bring this album to a close on, and it leaves you wanting to hear more music like it.
Dialogues From Beyond is an amazing debut record from LIFELOST that showcases the full talents of Phlegeton as a songwriter. The music has plenty of variety, and it shifts between denser, death metal orientated moments to much grating and haunting black metal ones. It’s a shame that this album only lasts just over twenty three minutes, because you get the sense this album could have easily gone on for twice its running time in a similar vein without becoming monotonous or tedious. Nonetheless, it’s an impressive debut that shows lots of promise, and could work as a great foundation on which to build several future records.
Rating: 8/10
Dialogues From Beyond is out now via Transcending Obscurity Records.
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