Review Summary: Drifting between idle thoughts and passive ideas
Like Old Entish in a way, Lustre subscribe to the philosophy that anything worth saying does and should take a long time to say. An ambient, atmospheric black metal project by Nachtzeit, which focuses his attention onto the changing of seasons on, They Awoke to the Scent of Spring. Like the first rays of the sun, vibrant and radiant upon a landscape blanketed by snow which has trapped air underneath it, insulating and waiting until the warmth can emerge, the idea of penning an album based around this theme is full of possibilities. However, instead of utilizing the naturalistic motif to illustrate the vast transformation and potential embodied in spring we are stuck in place, frozen as if not yet having awoken from our cyroprotectant slumber. Offering nothing new or exciting in a genre that has already exhausted this fountain of inspiration a hundred times over and with better results than we have here.
Lustre embark on a synthesizer heavy, lullaby-like, minimalistic adventure into featureless and tedious monotony. Although, quite paradoxical to say, the record is awash with inactivity. There are build-ups that take an eternity only to never be realized by any sort of crescendos or dynamics. "Part 1" and "Part 2" share the only vocals on the album as the lyrics are split between the two parts. The vocals, raspy and with ample reverb, are the typical black metal affair and the only shreds of black metal on the record. The first part's only real change occurs about six minutes into the run time when an almost amateurish synth line, mimicking perhaps the way water would drip off of a stalactite of ice, carries the listener towards the end of the song. The second part, as well as the entire album, could benefit from a bit more texture to drive home Lustre's ethos or at the very least, captivate the listener. "Part 2" showcases more of the same ambient droned keys kept in rhythm by the album's 'drum work' which consists of nothing more than lightly crashed cymbals and the occasional snare.
The second half of the album, "Part 3" and "Part 4" begin with the third's soft acoustic lines that bring something new to the table, but as the old adage goes, too little too late, because nothing at this point in the record bar some catastrophic, actual black metal, is going to change what you already expect to hear. The fourth movement is mostly rain. Rain with some natural sounds in the background until a serene synth line picks up a quarter way through but once again, offering nothing towards fulfillment. Nachtzeit seems content to just plod through the snow, ambivalent to everything else around and that may be the best way to experience this record, in complete obliviousness to your surroundings. In a deep, melancholic state, contemplating your thoughts. As Thoreau sates, in his grand declaration of all things natural, in Walden, "One attraction in coming to the woods to live was that I should have the leisure and opportunity to see the spring come in", indeed, leisure is the key element in Lustre's music. Their is no rush, no great urgency… just existence.
