LIFELOST
Sometimes, I get stuck writing reviews. I get it with composing, too, although that's usually a lack of inspiration. With reviews, it's more a case that I can't find anything interesting to say about an album. There is nothing particularly amazing about Lifelost's 'Dialogues from Beyond'; it's perfectly functional blackened death metal, the type you've heard a million times before. Neither is there anything inherently bad about this mini-album. In either extreme, it's usually quite easy to write something. When things are distinctly average, what is there really to say?
Phlegeton, whose name sounds like a cough remedy, is the sole member of Lifelost and has produced a set of songs that should appease those put off by the latest Behemoth album. Indeed, if all you wanted from the Polish masters of blackened death metal was a follow-up to 'The Satanist', you may get some considerable mileage from 'Dialogues from Beyond'. The same focus on building tempos, layering guitars, and monster riffs is present. It's just that it all sounds a little uninspiring. Again, there's nothing wrong with the songs - in fact, track 3, 'Released from Life' is quite good - but after repeated listens there was little to latch on to.
Before you know it, the mini-album is over (its run-time is about 23 minutes), and the majority of it sounds like one long song; each track blending into the next with little in the way of variety. Perhaps the biggest complaint here is that 'Dialogues from Beyond' is neither so ground-breaking, nor truly awful, to illicit any feeling beyond "meh". I haven't had any fun with this, and it hasn't brought anything conceptually to the table to make me think. It is extreme metal's equivalent of lift music.
Phlegeton, whose name sounds like a cough remedy, is the sole member of Lifelost and has produced a set of songs that should appease those put off by the latest Behemoth album. Indeed, if all you wanted from the Polish masters of blackened death metal was a follow-up to 'The Satanist', you may get some considerable mileage from 'Dialogues from Beyond'. The same focus on building tempos, layering guitars, and monster riffs is present. It's just that it all sounds a little uninspiring. Again, there's nothing wrong with the songs - in fact, track 3, 'Released from Life' is quite good - but after repeated listens there was little to latch on to.
Before you know it, the mini-album is over (its run-time is about 23 minutes), and the majority of it sounds like one long song; each track blending into the next with little in the way of variety. Perhaps the biggest complaint here is that 'Dialogues from Beyond' is neither so ground-breaking, nor truly awful, to illicit any feeling beyond "meh". I haven't had any fun with this, and it hasn't brought anything conceptually to the table to make me think. It is extreme metal's equivalent of lift music.
LABEL:
FORMAT:
Transcending Obscurity
EP
DIALOGUES FROM BEYOND
Review by Steve Cowan
RUNNING TIME:
23:16
RELEASE DATE:
28th October 2018
TRACK LISTING
1) Malign Emanatio
2) Sepulchral Vault
3) Released From Life
4) Metanoia
5) Incorporeal Gate
2) Sepulchral Vault
3) Released From Life
4) Metanoia
5) Incorporeal Gate
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:
Spain
"...extreme metal's equivalent of lift music."
