For all of you who think that
metal bands are a bunch of knuckle dragging Neanderthals who either worship
Satan or drag entrails from the nether regions of young women,may I present Lotus Thief, and their
new release “Revrm”.It's based on the
epic philosophical poem called “De rerum natura”, written by the Roman poet
Lucretius.And before you go thinking,
“Well la de freakin' da, Mr. Smartypants”, I had to look all that up and read
the press release and stuff.I'm not a
knuckle dragger but its pretty much all I can do to string together 500 words
for one of these reviews.
What does it all sound like?
That, my friends, is a very good question.The music defies easy description.You could probably ask 5 people to describe this to you and get 5
different takes.I'm going to say that
it sounds like very spacey rock, pretty much mid-tempo all the way through,
with a tendency towards being black metal curious.There is some of the Isis/Neurosis
quiet/loud, soft/heavy dynamics going on.There are lots of acoustic or electronic interludes between the main
songs.Listening closely to the
interludes made me think that maybe there was some pattern or story to be told
by them, but nothing I could really ferret out.
The music is very well
done.These are some great songs.On drums we have Otrebor of Botanist
fame, and on everything else we have Bezaelith.Which is cool, although if they plan to be a live band they will
obviously have to flesh out the lineup.The everything else, by the way, includes guitars, acoustic and
electric, bass, and keys.The vocals are
well done, again by Bezaelith, although there is the almost de rigeur female
vocals in heavy music lately with the close harmonies and all.
These are the kind of tunes you
want to listen to with headphones so you can catch everything that is taking
place in the music.There is a lot going
on and the songs are built up well.There is a very organic flow to the entire album, as it is sequenced
without any breaks between songs, just the aforementioned interludes.Just put it on and let it flow and it will
take you on a journey through the nature of things.It is intelligent and arty music without
being full of itself, without being smug and showing off and thinking that it
is oh so clever.It honestly made me
feel that I would like to read the poem on which all of this music is based,
because it is so good.
It may be that what we have here
is a new kind of post-metal, call it thinking man's metal.A lot of bands have based their music for an
album or two on the written word, or pulled out some songs here and there based
on the literary medium.An entire album
that makes you feel and makes you think, and makes you want to explore even
more, is a pretty rare feat in any genre of music.Kudos to Lotus Thief for pulling it
off in a big way.
Comments