By Brian Kim
The northwest is a haven for heavy music, rich and fertile in both dreary gloom and bohemian decadence. In this prosperous land of extreme creativity, there is a flowing river of crushing riffs, rising with flood water and ready to demolish the current landscape of metal. The name of this river is Lord Dying, and from the land of Portland, OR they are beginning to tread beyond the great Pacific Northwest, across the nation, and soon, the world.
Aggressive and unflinching, Lord Dying’s Relapse Records debut, Summon the Faithless, is a record that epitomizes a vast spectrum of metal and metal subgenres without sounding rehashed or unoriginal. The record’s opening track, “In a Frightful State of Gnawed Dismemberment”, kicks off with a massive, lumbering sludge progression before dropping into a deceptively straightforward chugging guitar line, which tactfully builds upon itself until becoming an unstoppable powerhouse of seething riffage. Throughout the record, the band crosses beams of dutiful heavy metal, stoner rock, sludge, thrash, and prog, generating universe-ending levels of raw energy.
Despite the impressive production quality of the album, which boasts scorching guitar wails, gut-dropping bass, and colossal drum tones, the live energy of the band is also graciously present. The sweaty, muggy, beer-infused air of the club is nearly palpable; the faint scent of reefer almost negotiates its way from the mind’s eye. The spirit of rock and roll is alive and strong on this record, even through the doomiest moments there is a pervasive intensity shining through the haze.
From the almost title track “Summoning the Faithless”, which has some of the catchiest guitar hooks on the album, to the abrasively heavy “Perverse Osmosis” and it’s brutal, antagonizing screams and atonal guitar melodies, Summon the Faithless is a record that truly stays solid through its entirety. Even the ending of the record is a stirring soundscape of washy feedback and tripped out effects, a drawn out transformation from a massive wall of noise and shrieks into a subdued delay loop, eventually entering silence.
Fans of metal in any shape or form would be foolish to miss out on this album. Summon the Faithless is out July 9th on Relapse Records, order it online at http://lorddying.bandcamp.com.
