LANTLOS – .Neon CD
Prophecy Productions
Neige of ALCEST, PEST NOIRE and the now defunct AMESOEURS is a busy little Frenchman. Not satisfied with his own creative workings he’s out spreading his talents to anyone who’ll have him. Herbst aka: Markus Siegenhort of Germany’s LANTLOS decided to bring him in as vocalist. Seeing that Neige’s last output with ALCEST on this year’s Ecailles de lune, also put out by Prophecy Productions, was one giant ethereal fart of shoegazer boredom. This change in scenery with Herbst fully in charge of the creative process might draw Neige back to the black. After listening to .Neon I wondered if Herbst not only used the ALCEST debut, Souvenirs d’un Autre Monde, as a template but brought in Neige for pure authenticity.
.Neon is definitely shoegazer black metal and will have plenty of indie rock losers in awe of it’s resemblance to ALCEST in sound along with Neige on vocals. Herbst, on guitar and bass, likes his melodic jazz, effects pedals and layers upon layers of guitar noise to create his musical atmosphere which by and large ain’t a bad thing. Drummer Felix Wylezik offers up these off kilter drum patterns on a few memorable songs which cut through what would otherwise be hazy boredom. Last but not least, especially in this review, are Neige’s vocals which I’ve never criticized. His most notable performance on here comes with the song “Pulse/Surreal”, a jazz infused number where our boy let’s loose with some clean vocals layered over his formidable harsh screams. Some other memorable cuts include “Neige de Mars” which breaks away faster from the shoegaze snails pace. Then there’s the title cut which adds some AMESOEURS’ influence with the background female vocals.
I don’t know if the future of shoegazer black metal will be saved from the pigeonholed lackluster of its forbearers thanks to Herbst. One thing is for sure and that’s Neige has become the new namedrop for the avant garde. That’s a title once held by Jarboe of the SWANS, who in all honesty has no talents worthy of the praise she gets. For as much crap I lay upon Neige the man actually has talent and tends to bring out the best to everyone he performs with. Three songs interesting songs on here that won’t put you to sleep out of a total of six ain’t bad.
Label: http://www.prophecy.cd/
MySpace: www.myspace.com/lantlos
Official: www.lantlos.com/
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