Lantern
Below
Dark Descent Records
Street: 06.25
Lantern = Autopsy + Hooded Menace + Sepultura (Beneath the Remains era)
This Lantern does not burn brightly—drenched in atmosphere, this dirge-meets-speed/groove death metal record is one of the better records you will hear all year. Initially, when “Rites of Descent” chimes the funeral death metal bell, expectations are torn. Higher-end guitar tones start to set the thick, murky atmosphere of Below. Then things get really interesting, as the pace and momentum shift seamlessly from the dirge to groove and fast, old-school thrash-styled Americana death. Just when your neck starts to stiffen and sore, the dirges slow things way down, and it’s almost like you’re listening to a different record. “Interesting” is an understatement—this laughs at the death metal genre conventions, and pushes your psyche into dark, angry moods. Dark Descent Records found a blood-stained diamond here—this is a sleeper of cult death metal record in the making. Push play and die. –Bryer Wharton