Review Summary: Imagine the year is 1999 and Darkthrone is about to sit down to write an album, but they’re drunk.
Lugubrum is a five man Belgian experimental black metal band formed in 1992. They have been described as alcohol fueled brown metal because of their use of oddball instruments such as banjos and saxophones, as well as their nonsensical hillbilly lyrical themes that range from drinking to evil midgets… literally. The band’s third LP, “De Totem,” has a typical raw production black metal sound with heavily distorted guitars, blast beats, and harsh screeching vocals. Many of the songs on this record would probably pacify even the most kvlt BM purists, until they realized they were listening to a song called, “Udder of Death.” All jokes aside though, this is a solid release full of really good music as long as the dirty humor doesn’t put you off.
The first track is an intro called, “Beer,” and is nothing more than a minute and a half of eerie background noise with sounds of water splashing, horses whinnying, and chains clinking together. This discordant array of random noises throws you straight into the real first song, “Hoornkluiten,” kicking the album into gear with fast blast beat drumming and tremolo picking on distorted guitars. After the listener gets a moment to adjust, vocalist Barditus breaks in with some of the screechiest raw vocals you’ll hear from any black metal band. Roughly four minutes later, the humorously named track, “Udder of Death,” starts with a fairly catchy drum beat over a wall of very heavily distorted guitars before Barditus pierces them with more of his deliciously uninterpretable screeching. The dynamic guitar riffs and drum work on this song make it one of the best songs on the album; this is a change from the usual repetition.
The title track, “De Totem,” is a slower song with sludgy guitar parts that drag you through the four minutes before the song speeds up with blast beats and almost indistinguishable guitar riffs through the end of the track. “Midgets of Evil” is another standout piece that opens with blast beats and a simple guitar part over more of the same wretched vocals. The drums are more prominent in this song than most on the album, with higher audibility and some cool fills between blast beat sections before they die out while the song fades on a lasting guitar chord. The outro, “Oui Maître,” has more discordant noise with some French dialogue here and there, just to make sure the album ends as strangely as it started.
My only real issues with this album are, at times, elements of the album can feel gimmicky (banjo parts), and the murky raw production combined with the repetition of the riffs can grate on the listener’s ears after a while, but Lugubrum does a good job alternating speed in songs and changing riffs when they've worn out their welcome, making it not much of an issue. De Totem is a wonderfully raw album and should be a part of any black metal fanatic’s collection…. as long as they have a good sense of humor.
