Review Summary: Combining both black metal shoegaze with post-rock ambience, this is the album to add to any collection.
I am relatively new to the post-rock/black metal genre combination that has been emerging in Europe and Western America. While I can guarantee that founders of these exclusive genres never imagined the two fusing in any sort of capacity, bands that have been popping up over the past few years have created some rather brilliant albums, and the fusion of the two sounds has definitely intrigued me.
Enter Lantlôs, one of the genre’s greatest (in my opinion). Dark yet bursting with waves of light on all sides, Lantlôs’ “.neon” is a rather rare album. From relaxing moments to chaotic outpourings, this album spans a range not common in most modern metal and deserves several, if not scheduled, listens through. This album is appropriately named, as every bit of the music here is unreservedly luminous and radiant.
The passion here is absolutely brilliant; the riffing is triumphant. While almost every song has its calmer moments, the majority of this album seems to be about bringing together dark lyrical elements of black metal and heart-piercing guitar work of post-rock into a brilliant combination unlike anything I have heard before.
What’s impressive is that while this is still very much a black metal album, this album is some of the most hopeful sounding black metal I have ever heard. The lyrics are still dark but have an overall sense of hope. This vibrancy creates an atmosphere so bright that I can’t help but visualize utter beauty while listening. Just when things start to get sad, the bright guitar work picks up again, and it never gets dull. It's simply stunning.
