ALBUM REVIEW: Towards Nothingness – Lares

Germany’s LARES are an an incredibly promising band with a great, interesting sound. Bringing together elements of both sludge and psychedelic music, they have a sound that sets them apart from the vast majority of sludge acts, with their debut EP, Mask of Discomfort; laying down some really solid foundations for the band and their sound. Three years on from the release of this EP, the band are back with their first full-length album, Towards Nothingness, an album that develops even further their sound, resulting in an extremely impressive and monolithic album that stands head and shoulders above many of the bands contemporaries.

It Burns, with its steady, hypnotic sound, is a great introduction to this album. ethereal guitars and, sludgy bass lines solid drumming build backbone for what quickly turns into a monstrous piece of music. The ferocious vocals add even more intensity to proceedings, providing a great benchmark for the rest of the album to surpass. Theiaphobic Ansia takes a much lighter approach, without sacrificing any of the hazy atmosphere, with sparse guitars creating an immersive sound that acts as a great, instrumental interlude to the following track, Cursed With Embodiment; a song which makes excellent use of harsher distortion, soaring leads and a larger drum sound, resulting in a vast, cavernous sound. The vocals take on a more urgent and feral delivery, which lends a lot more aggression to the already muscular sound. SN1987A Space Alteration Machine utilises not only fantastic, delicate drumming and monolithic, hook-laden guitars, but also an airy synth sound which gives the music a sublime, spacey quality that helps give this lengthy offering a much more powerful and beguiling sound. It’s a relatively minimalist track, but uses its sparse components to build a gargantuan sound that ultimately makes this one of the stand out tracks on the album.

Grey Haze takes the music down a slightly darker route, with a bleak guitar sound and savage vocals lending this song a much more melancholic and robust sound. The equally punishing nature of the drums gives this an absolutely massive sound at points, making for a catchy and crushing piece of music. Oumuamua acts as another brief but effective instrumental break that strips the music back to a much more spartan motif, with a heady ambience that works extremely well at this point in the record.

Catacomb Eyes is a much livelier song right off the bat, with a more authoritative approach from the drums and bass, which carve a deep furrow through the sound, acting as a meaty base on which to building some great, bluesy riffs, drenched in distortion, which gives this song a far more energetic and punchy edge than the tracks that preceded it. It’s a great, bombastic slab of psychedelic Sludge that gives this album an magnificent exclamation point, with Towards Nothingness complements the dense and ferocious style of the track before it with waves of caustic feedback, which acts as a noisy, impenetrable conclusion to the record.

It’s clear from listening to this album that, in spite of being a band for only a relatively short period of time, LARES have essentially perfected their sound. The balance between the psychedelic and sludge elements on offer is just right, and there’s plenty of variety on offer which keeps this album interesting, the gap between the this and the E.P well worth the wait. With Towards Nothingness, LARES have set themselves a fairly lofty bar for their future music to overcome.

Rating: 8/10

Towards Nothingness is out now via Argonauta Records.

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