Visceral, volatile and spewing venom in all directions,
LPBYG was, undeniably (and probably purposefully) a little bit all over the place, but still managed to retain
just enough cohesion to stop it all flying apart at the seams… while still feeling like it might do so at any given moment.
The band’s recently-released second album,
We Are Always Alone, by contrast, may be a little less
feral than its predecessor, but it’s still a wild, whiplash-inducing ride, make no mistake, whose erratic bursts of frenzied ferocity arguably benefit from an increased sense of focus and direction which allows them to land more cleanly and hit that little bit harder.
Andrew Reesen and guitarist/vocalist
Andy Schoengrund) “deal in a gritty, gruesomely groovesome brand of Black ‘n’ Roll which has, over the years, also developed an increasingly savage-yet-sombre (not to mention ever-so-slightly proggy) edge to it”.
The latest record in their discography as it existed at the time of
Andy’s retrospective was the 2020 album
Life Vapor, which he characterized as
Feral Light‘s “darkest record yet”, a “more refined and more atmosphere-heavy album than either of its predecessors”, but also “even more focussed and ferocious”: “[F]or what it might lack (or sacrifice) in terms of bombastic hooks and swaggering attitude it more than makes up for in sheer intensity and potent staying-power, making for an overall more fulfilling, and no less thrilling, listening experience from start to finish.”
Just after last Thanksgiving Day, our man
Andy Synn wrote combined reviews here of the three EPs released in 2020 by Holy Death, who describe themselves as “three piece death doom out of the Nevada desert by way of Los Angeles”. Those EPs
Supreme Metaphysical Violence,
Celestial Throne ov Grief, and
Deus Mortis revealed a multi-faceted and evolving approach, with the most recent of those EPs demonstrating that (in
Andy‘s words) “the band continue to (somehow) get even harsher and even heavier as they grow in confidence and skill”.
With those EPs stacked up in very impressive fashion,
Andy predicted “there’s a very good chance that the group’s next release will be their best yet!” What we didn’t know then but do know now is that