Sweden's LÖMSK has a distinct sound that bridges an underlying crusty croak of the vocals to a tremolo-picked drone. While it sounds great, it also creates a throb that finds the first two songs bleeding together. This is a good example of where our average black metal band is going to get into problems with me. They have a sound, but it needs to be applied to arrangements that are songs worth returning to. Here, it is a blur that fades into the background.
"Requiem of Fire" finds the vocals discovering more purpose than just trying to yell over the guitars and creates an accent that has an almost Behemoth like cadance. "Entropia" finds them slowing to let the riff ring out into a more atmospheric darkness. It works off this darker throb and accelerates into a tense storm of ringing guitars. It works better songwise, but still a pretty simple arrangement with little in terms of dynamics.
"Chimaera" finds the vocals making some different choices in order to stand out against the razor-sharp blur of guitars dominating the song."Stare into the Void" finds the void staring back in a manner that sounds pretty much like what we have already heard from these guys, boring me a bit. The same can be said for "Furia" which just rides the buzz of the tremolo-picked guitars. The fact that this is the longest song at nine minutes makes it perhaps more tedious. Overall, the album sounds great, so fans of early second wave black metal who just want something to storm the gates to will appreciate, I just need a little more, so I am going to give it an 8. Out March 6th on ALL NOIR.
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