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Rich in atmosphere and emptiness.-
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| Lekamen Illusionen Kallet: The Second Wind |
Black Metal, Rock
Nordvis Records
March 29th, 2011
- The Other Realm - 5:37
- Death Breeder - 4:44
- Ed Anger - 3:36
- The Delusionist - 5:28
- Insjunken - 3:37
- A Filthy Ride - 5:22
- Kallad till Bortgång - 7:00
- The Second Wind - 5:16
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| Review Information |
Release length: 40:40
Review posted on March 26th, 2011
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| | Overall Score: 6/10 |
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| Discography |
Discography covers all information available up to day of review and is updated if future albums are reviewed. |
| Full-Length(s): |
Må Ljuset Aldrig Nå Oss Mer (2003) | Besvärtade Strofer (2005) | Lekamen Illusionen Kallet (2007) | The Second Wind (2011)
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| Review |
Incorporating Hard Rock into Black Metal is quickly becoming the latest craze in the underground. While it's a rather unique take on the Black Metal style, it's also becoming one of the most overused style in the world of raw recordings for the style, and already feels pretty dried up as far as potential goes. However, that isn't stopping many of the bands that pioneered the sound, and the hordes of groups taking up the style in the years to follow it's birth. Enter the band Lekamen Illusionen Kallet, or LIK for short. While the band isn't really that new, having formed back in 2000, LIK is a one man project with a session drummer that takes a more blakened approach to Danzig, receiving much attention from fans of the underground, and critics alike. But, does the long awaited fourth full-length effort The Second Wind, an album fans waited four years to get their hands on, actually worth the wait?
The music on The Second Wind does manage to have a nice Black Metal touch to it, while still retaining an early Rock sound to the music. There is no denying that the combination of styles has been done well by the band, but while the combination itself is great, that doesn't mean anything for the overall sound. The production helps out somewhat, being a rather raw quality that will remind listeners of an analog quality, as if the songs were taken from a cassette around the time they started to come into style, but sounding a little clearer, especially with the vocals. This really does work with the old-school Rock n' Roll sound of LIK, but the production simply cannot carry this release itself.
Right from the start, you'll notice the music sounds empty, as if a pivotol piece of the recording had been left out. The guitars have your typical Black Metal distortion to them, but it sound very weak. The bass doesn't really do much for the recording, and the drums are often a very simple pattern. All this causes the music to just feel like it's crawling along, as well as just feel insanely empty and boring against boring drums. "The Delusionist" is the perfect example of this, as the song itself isn't very strong to begin with, only feeling somewhat richer with the addition of the vocals, and chords that appear to have a background guitarist at times. However, the chords in this song eventually become overly simple, being one chord ringing out against slow, simple drumming, leaving dead air and empty gaps in the song. Thanks to this, the song seems to go on forever, being heavily drawn out, even though it's just shy of five and a half minutes, and not an eternity like you would imagine.
While no other track on here really has gaps like "The Delusionist", any other track on here that doesn't try to be more upbeat falls way short of being impressive. This is comes from the lack of rich guitars and simple music. "The Other Realm" starts the album off in the most dismally boring way, though the guitars themselves aren't too bad, just lack the rich feel and are overly simple. At times the vocals sound like they are forcing harmonization, and in the end it winds up becoming laughable, sounding more like a failed deep, rhaspy voice meant to be menacing, but ultimately isn't. This is the case for "Death Breeder", as much of the song features vocals like this. However, when they aren't really trying to be harmonized, they truly fit the music better, especially if there's energy behind them, which that song also seemed to not want to deliver. "A Filthy Ride", for example, is a slower paced track that starts off like an upbeat AC/DC track, but gradually moves to conclude in a melancholic Black Metal manner. When the song has a greater Black Metal atmosphere, it sounds great against the rhaspier vocals, and seems to be a little more technical, or at least well paced compared to some fo the earlier material that falls between upbeat rock and this melancholic Black Metal. Those songs arew easier to spot thanks to the dual-layered Danzig-like clean singing vocals that adorn the song.
Of course, not all tracks on this recording are bad. There's a handful of good ones, but many just seem to appear the end of the recording. "A Filthy Ride", as stated, has a nice gradual effect from upbeat to deathly, and "Kallad till Bartgang" has a mood and atmosphere that works with the deeper clean singing, being a prodominantly Black Metal track with a chorus that incorporates enough melody to call it Rock. Despite the vocal performance on "Death Breeder", this song also nicely shines through with some heavier Rock thrown into the works that is just catchy and infectious throughout, the only exceptions being when the song slows down, feeling empty through the less-then-rich guitars about half way that find they are relying on a simple Bass chord in a truly old-school Rock n' Roll manner, but just doesn't really work.
The Second Wind is an interesting release solely on the fact of how much emphasis is put onto the Hard Rock/Rock n' Roll aspects of the recording. Bringing in traces of the slower, more Stoner Rock qualities of Black Sabbath, while also mixing in the upbeat Rock stylings of an AC/DC influence against some slower, melancholic Black Metal clearly inspired by Norse second wave Black Metal. While the atmosphere is often rich, the jumps between the styles can be rather large, and the guitars are often not as rich as they should be, as well as overly simple at times. The Second Wind by LIK is worth checking out, especially if you are a fan of the underground, but the overall quality of the final product feels like a lot is missing, and it's not really from the lower production quality that was used to record the effort.
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Digital review copy of this release provided by:
Nordvis Produktions.
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