reviews
Arizona Metal review
Every once in a great while, an album comes out that isn’t just my album of the year pick, but possibly one of the best albums I’ve ever heard. The London post-metal band Light Bearer has, with only one release, accomplished both.
The hour long record, Lapsus, is not only instrumentally masterful, but incredibly well written. This first record tells the story of Lucifer’s banishment from heaven and exile into hell. Soundwise, the release heavily echoes the styles of bands like Cult of Luna, Mouth of the Architect and Rosetta. I was extremely excited to hear recently through the band’s Facebook page that they are going to enter the studio next summer to record the follow up, entitled Silver Tongue. A long way away? Yeah. But if it’s anything like what I heard on Lapsus, I’d gladly wait even a decade.
I cannot stress enough the epicness of this album. Any person who has ever enjoyed even ten seconds of a post-metal album needs to hear this release. Lapsus is nothing short of an absolute gem.
Highlight tracks: Beyond The Infinite, Primum Movens, Armoury Choir
Low points: Quite lengthy. I personally love long albums, but some do not.
Overall rating: 10/10
A “Unilateral Disgust”review -
Post-rock, post-metal, post-hardcore, sludge: these are the defining elements of Light Bearer’s 2011 debut titled Lapsus. The London based group took the concept series penned by Alex (the vocalist) and turned it into a sonic tale of free will. Each part of the series, Lapsus, Silver Tongue, Magisterium, and Lattermost Sword, deals with the passing of the “truth” from metaphorical Lucifer (the light bearer) onto mitochondrial “Eve” and eventually humanity. They’ve got EPs and splits planned too, which apparently cover the formation of the universe and life (according to their Facebook). Lapsus is naturally the first album in the concept.
And what a glorious debut it is. Lapsus relies almost entirely on atmosphere to carry the listener through great soundscapes, and it does this quite well. The album begins with “Beyond The Infinite,” which really just sets up the concept for the rest of the album to play through. “Primum Movens” is Red Sparowes-esque but much more beautiful. Honestly that’s the only to describe it. It’s got all the layering and that “growing” feeling common with many post-rock masterpieces. “Armoury Choir” has a much more somber tone, and the epic, clean vocal conclusion of “Prelapsus” seamlessly flows straight into “Lapsus” which revisits previous themes from the other tracks, culminating in the end of the album.
It sounds like a bit much and hardly tells you anything about the music itself, right? Well the instrumentation is suitable for this kind of music. The production is heavy in low-end, yet every instrument is present and clearly heard throughout the album. There’s interesting fills midway through “Armoury Choir” and quality bass licks to complement the droning chords on nearly every track. Light Bearer isn’t afraid to ease off the distortion for some cleaner sections on “Lapsus” and “Primum Movens,” but the album is still pretty heavy as a whole. I’ve seen a few people compare it to Neurosis‘ mid-era and later work. Some of the riffs could be spiced up a bit, but I wasn’t expecting the most technically proficient music when I heard those comparisons. The clean vocals at the end of “Prelapsus” are a bit overdone but it does suit the song quite well regardless, and to top it all off the album concludes on a memorable collusion with a violin while the distant snare taps away in the background. That’s about all you can really say about the album. Believe me when I say my words don’t do Lapsus justice. It’s an album that has to be heard to appreciate.
Score: 90/100
This album is destined to be a post-rock/metal/hardcore classic and I definitely recommend it to everyone who likes that sort of thing. It took a little to grow on me, so don’t discount it at first listen.
Silent ballet review -
Religious beliefs have always played a huge part in not only the glorious art and architecture of the worshipers but also the products of the irreligionists. London six piece Light Bearer takes the focus of religion to transcend the gap between music and art. Vocalist and artist Alex CF molds literary references with a personal disdain for religion into a wonderfully majestic art form. The whole package, from the stunning artwork to the diverse music and conceptually influenced lyrics, is exciting and engaging.
The idea of a series of concept albums may turn some folks away, but Light Bearer offers it in a very accessible manner. Each part can stand on its own, but when digested as one, the art, the music, and the story truly astound. The songwriting takes the unusual process of following the lyrical content of a book written by the singer. The text is influenced but not expressively reliant on John Milton’s “Paradise Lost”, Dante Alighieri’s “The Divine Comedy” and Philip Pullman’s “His Dark Materials”, whose themes all concern the story of Satan being cast out of heaven after his refusal to bow before humanity. (The source may be biblical, but the details are thoroughly literary.)
Whilst the album was created with the words in mind, the vocals do not dominate the music. Songs are allowed to build naturally and the words never rush to advance the point. “Primum Movens” gently weaves a shimmering path before the vocals eventually enter the fray. At this point, the music forms a fierce post-metal edge. The vocals often act as an instrument: they work with the music, or perhaps more accurately, the music works with the screams. The lyrics are hard to pick out of the vocal delivery, but they wrap themselves around the music in a way that makes comprehension irrelevant.
Falling somewhere between post-rock, post-hardcore and post-metal, the music does follow some of the preset criteria, but is played with an intensity that is far from stale regurgitation. Title track “Lapsus” is a monster of a song, twisting from dark to light before mixing them together. The atmospheric flexibility aids the switches of light post-rock to crunching post-hardcore. As the sound spectrums play off one another, one can easily imagine the fight between the forces of good and evil.
A great deal of effort has been put into the stunning design, which makes the purchase of the vinyl especially satisfying. The concepts and ideas on display here can either be ignored or embraced, but the album’s selling point is its brooding, impassioned music. With the art, lyrics and music working in tandem, this becomes an impressive project. Lapsus is to be the first of four installments, and if the four pieces are able to work together as well as the elements of the freshman project, we may soon be looking at a classic.
Rock box review -
Lapsus is an album of perfection, spiked with melody and morbidity, the album was a cover of a mere apocalypse light bearer has laid upon us. The album begins with Beyond the Infinite, a melodic introduction that you could say was “made to produce intense atmosphere…” that it did, friends. Literally, as it begins, atmosphere is droned around you like a creeping willow pulling you from a stretched abyss, with it’s branches gently lifting you to a blackened exile, to as where you hear nothing but this… atmosphere. As it kicks in, the song sounds if it was a symphony conducted by satan himself, shall we say “Satans Symphony”. The way I see it, it is a practical fight among the heavens and the scorching lake of fire, hell. We then hit the end of this introduction, to hear a strange voice in your ears, only to find after that the song Primium Movements, a thirteen minute mixture of emotions, with vocals so powerful and angry, rhythm showered with sorrow and despair, yet with a hint of joy.
As the song leaves we get to Armoury Choir, which sounds as if (i’m bringing back this reference again) a battle among Heaven and Hell, simply that. Good and Evil are fused together as you picture survival at stake for what may seem a tale of grim and weary souls. The Vocals in this song are unbelievable, they overpower everything in the album. At the, lets say 6min45sec mark of the song (beginning my favorite part) the rhythm of the song rises and becomes a bit of a faster song, with drums pushing the steady rhythm away, bringing the strange voice back.
the song says it’s goodbyes and kicks to the Metatron, as it begins with what sounds like whispers in the wind and a gentle church choir pushing souls down to the gallows, skipping over to Prelapsus, an instant kick into action, with vocals even more intense that I honestly sought them out to be in the song. Soon the time comes for the title track (aka, the 17 minute 39 second track) LAPSUS, as Satan’s Symphony does an appearence now and then in the track. I must say, the song in general holds more than any song on the whole album, combining every single piece of the record, and more into one. Definitely one of the greatest closing songs I’ve yet to hear. The album closes as a fading violin ends the song with a weary, dreaded ending, making you forget about where you started or finished the album, and start the experience all over again…
“Don’t count on it” review
Emerging from the depths of the UK underground comes Light Bearer, once named Aeshættr. Featuring the frontman from sludge/hardcore act Fall of Efrafa, grand concepts are abound with this album and apparently future releases as well. From what I’ve read and heard so far, I have high hopes for this release.
While opener Beyond The Infinite got the ball rolling, it truly was the second track, Primum Movens, that immediately drew me in. In an opening passage that recalls all things I love about the post sound with clean guitars and somber melodies, it immediately clicked with me. For me, anyway, this has all the right componants for post-metal, it’s softer sections are beautiful and heartfelt while their heavy sections are groovy and melodic. I found the violin on here to add a certain melancholy tone to the record that isn’t usually present in the whole post scene. There’s also the nessissary textures on here, in both the heavy and mellow parts, something that only made me like this album more. This has also been one of the first albums to actually give me goosebumps while listening to it this year.
While I have to say all six tracks on here are good, it’s really the three real epics that make up the best parts of the album. The aforementioned Primum Movens, Armoury Choir, and the title-track, Lapsus, are easily the three tracks that have everything and more in their ten-plus minutes. The shorter tracks actually manage to match a similar atmosphere, but don’t quite have the same impact that the longer tracks due. On a sidenote, I found the guitar tone on here to, in a good way, sort of remind me of the Deftones during their “White Pony” album for some reason.
Overall, this album is simply great, that’s really all there is to it. It’s heavy, it’s soft, it’s melodic, progressive, groovy, it has growling and clean vocals, what more could you ask for if you like metal. Definitely check this out if you like anything I just mentioned, this is really, really good.
Overall Score: 9.5
Highlights: Every Track Is A Highlight
“A disposition” review –
In the year 1994 Current 93 already presaged Lucifer’s rise over London and on March 23rd, 2011 the prediction finally became truth when Light Bearer, which is in fact another term for Lucifer and derived from the latin words lucem ferre, released their debut album Lapsus.
The project was formed back in 2010 and consists of six spirited men willing to tell a tale about the metaphorical casting out of Lucifer as an event that ultimately leads to a rebellion in favor of free will and against a higher auhtority that claims to be almighty. According to the bands biography inspiration for this story was drawn from the writings of Philip Pullman’s “His dark materials” trilogy, John Milton’s Paradise Lost, and the Book of Genesis, an allegorical tale in which to forward atheist/anti theist and free thought ideologies. The tale however is not told by the lyrics alone but by the artwork and of course the music itself that seems to be metaphyiscal delivery van for the various fragments of the fictional world that the tale revolves around.
Said music itself is rich in instrumentation that ranges from guitars, bass and drums to percussion, piano, voices and other atmospheric tools. Note that the vocal performances should be listed along with the other instruments as they are always on the level with them and do not enslave the music as a vehicle for lyrical expression.
The Album however starts off with minimal use of the instruments as only a few repetitive notes caress our ears but these tiptoe steps are soon to be followed by the huge pace of a giant in his awakening. Then a mellow sound of strings over a carpet of guitar-noise. Words fight their way upwards only to bloom as a mantra that marks the end of the first song Beyond The Infinite and thus leads to the relaxed or loose feeling in the beginning of Primum Movens – a warm day way before springtide. The feeling builds up and the vocals kick in in all their roaring ferociousness and the tide turns as drums and guitars darken the day, topple carefully built guitar towers and let them fall to ruin. But there is still a positive feeling between all the rubble, the optimism that you feel in the face of a revolution or whenever a realization re-arranges your little world, widens your horizon and thus shrinks your heaven. Meanwhile the sound is still flowing, oozing out passion through all of its pores.
Admittedly this was just a commentary, a dim description of a fragment of the whole album but it should be enough to give you a vague impression of Lapsus. Gladly this album won’t be the last thing that we’ll hear of Light Bearer as they will continue the story on the albums to come whom are named Silver Tongue, Magisterium and Lattermost Sword. Several EPs and Splits might hopefully chamfer the picture in the future.
Overall I highly recommend listening to the album if you’re postmodernismusick or happen to have a strong appetite for raw emotion disguised as melodic experimentalism in a hardcore context. Also be sure to catch them live if you get the chance since they have already announced two shows: London and to my very egoistic delight even Hanover.
Chronicles of Chaos.com review
Post metal / atmospheric sludge is a style which rarely gets the attention it deserves. Perhaps it is because the genre is relativity new, the scene has few high profile bands and most of its fanbase consists of post rock and indie fans. Its history has also been marked with a distinctive sound, as well as a rigid template rarely deviated from. Since its inception, the style has rarely evolved beyond its initial highlights and has been content to soak in obscurity. The bands within the genre also rarely bring anything interesting to the table.
Britain’s Light Bearer augments the softer side of Explosions in the Sky with _Oceanic_ era Isis vocals. This combination could be cause for immediate dismissal, and the two elements are located too closely on the musical periodic table to turn any heads. Light Bearer’s debut also boasts monumental tracks segmented by brief interludes. There is nothing new here and everything has been done a decade ago. Despite everything, though, it is still pretty damn awesome.
_Lapsus_ is the first chapter in a proposed four part concept detailing the banishment of Lucifer out of the realms of heaven. In the band’s biography, the story is inspired by the Bible, John Milton’s “Paradise Lost” and, oddly enough, Philip Pullman’s young adult literary trilogy “His Dark Materials”. Light Bearer’s first EP _Beyond the Infinite, the Assembly of God_ serves as an introduction and prologue into the lengthy epic. If anything can be said about Light Bearer, it is that they are continuing the tradition of interjecting deep philosophical pretext overtop of atmospheric sludge.
Light Bearer possess something simple which most post metal bands lack. Despite the six members, Light Bearer’s sound is dynamic with an airy ferocity. The template of post metal can hamper the sound into a predictable heavy weight which rolls untouched until the end of the record. “Primum Movens”‘ use of the simple snare snap during the song’s build is enough to rouse active interest. Rarely, during a 14 minute sludge march, does the chance come for a fist clenching crescendo. Heavy isn’t a destination, rather a stage for the band’s experiments into the style we all have heard before.
Alex CF appears to be at the helm for the band, taking vocal, lyrical and art direction duties. Alex’s voice, while similar to the post metal template, is thinner with many instances of professional blemishes. While these qualities may sound like a hindrance, the deviation from what has been heard before works in favor of the band, presenting a rare strand of passion and undeniable effort. The croaks, screeches and laryngeal blowouts all contribute a bruising character which makes _Lapsus_ memorable. The voice is carried to the upper echelons by the solid instrumental qualities. Light Bearer sounds less like a post metal band making another album, rather a metal band discovering fire for the first time. _Lapsus_ punches as much as it soothes and presents post metal with an oddly youthful vigor.
I will be interested to see if Light Bearer’s story can match the promise and effort of its first chapter. I would also be interested to see if the whole of the story reaches a conclusion. Proposing a project this large allows many variables to hinder, change and destroy the original thesis. If this new British band is able to do what they say, with the type of quality seen in their first offering, then the band — and the style which it plays — will progress much further than anyone has ever thought. If they pull it off, it will be the greatest sludgy atmospheric magic trick the world has ever seen.
http://thetombofgod.blogspot.com
I love anonymous people are like guardian angels are there to guide you without you ever get to discover their identity. Yesterday said that some time without wearing something like that came to me completely stunned, unable to speak or even breathe. Well, not long after publishing the review of Maruta , a mysterious person left a comment recommending that today I told myself “this I have to post “ I like the unexpected recommendations,
Well, without thinking twice, I agreed to the recommendation and to taste the essence of this work, and after having tasted, I can only say I can not say anything. Completely blank, staring, suddenly I have outlined a smile, a smile that comes out when he feels he has discovered a treasure, like the child who discovers something wonderful and burns with desire to return to play with him. Because, my friends, this is the greatest thing you ever encountered in his life, so it costs me to wonder if this is not a curse rather than a work by a few English who want to transfer your thoughts to our lives . As soon as Beyond The Infinite sound, feel you are facing something so big that you can not even stop it, especially when it gives way to Primum mover. And is that from here begins a world that immerses you in all sorts of passages, atmospheres, feelings, expressions, ways of living life … todo. everything. You could say that this song is like a sandstorm dark, like a black desert, which one moves slowly and coldly sweaty and heavy step, thinking that you can not bear such a sound power is presented to you before. The introduction of violin in the disk makes it both beautiful and bleak. Returning to the part of Primum mover, this topic will make you feel like you’re dragging through the desert to the night and a whirlwind of sand Then I got up to crash to the ground and leave you dying, giving way behind them Armoury choir , a dense storm of dark sand much more powerful than the previous issue, and where the melodies with heartbreaking voice that Alex will succumb to the foot of this band and their sound overwhelming. Thereafter, and after an interlude, we come to the highlight of the disc, the disc makes the transformation from a real wonder and a bloody masterpiece, and the majesty of lapsus between the “prelude” to more 7 minutes where Tom (bass) shows for the first time have an amazing voice for the heartbreaking moments.
If after this you still live in peace, because the title track of this album that happens we will dig your grave, it is almost like the Ten Plagues of Egypt, but all at once, where his 17 minutes will make you seriously reconsider your vocation for music, because what we are shown below is available to few, very few who can boast as glorious a subject bill, where if you’re not crushed by the most poignant moments of the topic, will be revived by those glorious minutes where the violins give a divine aura lapsus ever seen, and is topped directly with those atmospheres where the cries of lost souls in the distance you’ll be left with a lump in his throat. And just like that, like it never happened at all, completes one of the most incredible albums you go to take in the face ever again.
10 / 10
Debaser.it
Bringer of light – This, literally, the meaning of the monicker of this band.
This light-bearer, is the recurring theme of the concept of this album.
”The narrative FOLLOWS the casting out of the innocent Lucifer, light bearer, And His attempt to sew the seeds of sentience in Humanity, to bear witness to the true form of the Authority, a liar and a false God.”
The concept comes to life through the inspiration of various literary works: the trilogy of “dark matter” by Philip Pullman, “Paradise Lost” by John Milton and “The Divine Comedy” by Dante Alighieri.
But in fact this work, lyrically and conceptually, is a review of the book of Genesis, to which are added elements taken from the works listed above. Dissecting the concept behind this piece is not only interesting but also mandatory, as they are completely written by Alex, the former lead singer of the (now cult) band Fall Of Efrafa.
It is from here that apart from anything else. Taking note of the dissolution of the FoE, Alex embarks on another adventure, on paper, quite tasty.
The reference names are different, according to his calls for groups such as the band Envy, Red Sparrowes, Sigur Rós, Neurosis, first Baroness, Circle Takes The Square, Mastodon, 65 days of static, Mouth of the Architect and Cult of Luna. In Indeed, quite right.
The album in question, “Slip” is quite simply a work in which post-rock elements, post-core/metal, screamo and in some ways even ambient / drone merge. The names that spring to mind at first sight, only three reasonably cited by Alex: Envy, Cult of Luna and Red Sparowes. The mood, the kind of desperation at times open to hope, the voice, I took the first two. The solutions to the other soft and ethereal.
It is not an original disc, or innovative as you want to understand it. That is not what they point to our own. The same Alex wrote: Do not try to impress or do something new. They play with heart and are tired of the idea that music must be original to be considered worthy. This is a disc written with heart and passion, or the traits that should characterize every artistic mark.
Another thing is certain, comparisons with Fall Of Efrafa as being of almost unanimously PURPOSE. The legacy of the former band of Alex is very impressive. And in that regard, he does not want to be Light Bearer comparagonati to FoE. They are two different entities. The kind, say many, but this is not the point. The Light Bearer is not what they aimed to “Fall Of Efrafa. And the presence of the same singer in both groups is not an excuse to enhance comparisons.
Even in music, the differences are indeed significant. The component crust / d-beat of FoE is completely absent, many solutions are at the limit of the post-rock more dilated (see, for example, the beginning of “Primum movens) , certain situations closely resemble atmosphere dear to Sigur Rós, as the moving end of the title track, accompanied among others by a beautiful cello. Also in the title track, the middle section seems even pay homage to the first tool, also soundscapes that are very reminiscent of the ambient, as well as in “Choir Armoury”.
Curiously, however the use of clean vocals, proved indigestible to many, many fits perfectly. Use only the penultimate track “Prelapsus”, among other things for about thirty seconds, and the limit of the spoken word in “The Metatron.”
The main flaw of this album is that at times may seem long-winded (two tracks touch on the quarter hour and exceeds it), but it’s easy to get over it. Boredom is not involved almost never, and indeed seems that time is accelerated. Two minutes seems like thirty seconds over a track, one wonders, “Already?”.
A feeling of unfulfilled interior, which is clamoring for more. Something that comes with every passing minute, but that will never satisfy fully.
A little ‘as a cigarette off one, you feel the need to light another.
And so with this album you feel the need to listen to it again.
And again.
And again.
Google translate review, unknown source -
Actually, I stumbled by chance on the disc. But since it has found its way into the CD drawer is not more out there. For me, the album is so far the best that has produced in 2011 and was also my first purchase this year. ‘Mistake’ is to be the beginning of a story told across four albums of Lucifer, as he is turning away from God and banished from heaven – and I’m looking for lyrics not so and that fact really is comprehensible only through the reading of the lyrics.
Quiet and unassuming but ominous sound starts a storm that in the course of the next 59 minutes to an epically brutal bastion developed, which draws from a first to the last sound sequence into the spell. The sometimes with cello and piano melodies take deposits under painted on a goose bumps. Remember sections still a little ideal world it quickly becomes clear that these moments last forever but a short time. The musical weather pattern changes abruptly into a dark sinister sound that accompanied with the music perfectly and atmosphere matching hardcore growls of the singer and tons and tons of riffs.
Incredibly, the effect of the sound carries on. Even without consciously knowing the lyrics of heavy borne sound excited by all of its forms and expressions, make up a story about love, hope, despair and death to picture it. In this act the part about 15 minutes long songs, even after several cycles never tiring or boring – that’s the mix of various elements of style is too finely woven.
I still find on a slice of two of the most epic Liedausklänge letzteindlich is just the icing on the cake, which contributes to the uniqueness of this disc. Who is on great melodies and musical experimentation is not afraid that will not regret buying this disc.
