Lantlôs - Agape
Prophecy
Post-Black Metal
5 songs (35:31)
Release year: 2011
Lantlôs, Prophecy
Reviewed by Jaime
Sometimes, just sometimes, my friends make some pretty decent suggestions to me, such as Sólstafir. And sometimes they don’t, see Lifelover for that. So when a load of them were going on about German mob Lantlôs I figured I’d check them out and see why they’re all a buzz about them. A talking point is that perennially sad Frenchman Neige is here. And... err... Not much else. Intrauterin is B-grade, lo-fi post rock with black metal vocals that stutters along, with the sections sounding like no effort’s been made to string them together. Bliss fares far better, and shows what a little energy can do to a song even if it does progressively slow down.

And then there’s the quiet piano bit. Part of me wants to hate this. It starts off as if you’re about to get your generic, saccharine, floaty fair part but mercifully twists off into a fantastic cool jazz section. Well, if you like your cool jazz with some white noise in the background, but still, it’s masterfully done. Where the hell was it in the opening track? It’s actually a disappointment when the first part of the song, the initial burst of which manages to stave off some fears, returns in earnest with the black metal blastbeat making a show too. Bloody Lips and Paper Skin teeters on the edge of being My Bloody Valentine’s grim, angry little cousin due to Neige skreeing in the corner that no one loves him. Actually they could’ve dropped him altogether so far as he’s actually detracted from the album as a whole. Especially here, I could easily listen to the song as an instrumental, it’d work really well as an instrumental, but I guess the Lantlôs ethos is to incorporate as many annoying little niggles into their work as possible.

They tap into whatever possessed them during Bliss during You Feel Like Memories, with its pulsing, singular bass line throbbing through the laidback, bluesy guitar parts that are just drifting away into the sunset. Startling doesn’t quite cover it. And that Alcest moment that you’ve been expecting for the entire damned album finally appears in the ultimate track Eribo – I Collect The Stars. Well at least for me it did anyway. But where Intrauterin stumbled Eribo glides. It’s smooth, focussed and, eventually, thunderous. And it’s also let down again by the vocals. They appear with 2 minutes to go and just weaken everything. The music behind them is gorgeous, so why is Neige, who has history in doing this sort of stuff and doing it well, ruining all the fun? At the very least he doesn’t do it for long.

This album can be reviewed in one word: Frustrating. Frustrating, as the opener is the weakest song by a country mile. Frustrating, as the vocals kill everything. Frustrating, as the band clearly have some fantastic ideas that they only occasionally bring together in one complete song (which is also the shortest, I may add). Remember when I said part of me wants to hate this? Part of me wants to love this too, but there are so many annoyances that I can’t bring myself to do so, and that’s frustrating as well. If you pick this up ignore the first track and you’ll be doing yourself a favour.
Killing Songs :
Bliss (just for that jazz part), You Feel Like Memories, Eribo – I Collect The Stars
Jaime quoted 72 / 100
Other albums by Lantlôs that we have reviewed:
Lantlôs - Melting Sun reviewed by Neill and quoted 40 / 100
Lantlôs - .Neon reviewed by Vrechek and quoted 82 / 100
Lantlôs - Lantlôs reviewed by Goat and quoted 78 / 100
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