Wildhund

Lantlôs

I've never heard Lantlôs prior to this but I saw that they have been stirring up quite a bit of buzz and receiving some positive reviews. From what I hear, they are also one of the originators of melding metal, shoegaze, and dream pop-like aesthetics together; something that has become more popular with bands like Deafheaven, Astronoid, Alcest, and even on that new Genghis Tron record. I'm not opposed to this mash-up of genres at all and initially I was a fan of what the German band was doing here. My positivity towards the music turned sour rather quickly though, and with each listen of this record, it got worse.

There are things I like generally about the record. I like the odd dips in to more math-rock territory and the more djent-styled rhythmic sections. The guitar tones in these sections are pretty great; not super distorted but has lots of twang and definition. It reminds me at times of the last Snooze record which I liked quite a bit. The band will also embark on these detours that pop up rather unexpectedly, driving a little excitement into the songs. The Bubble has a very unexpected breakdown with some echoed shouts over top. It reminds me of one of my favourite moments on Torche's debut record. Amber kicks up the intensity a little bit with a screamed vocal part, the only time we hear vocals like this on the record if I remember correctly. I also really love this 8-bit synth sound that appears throughout the record. It is a pretty unique sound to incorporate into a rock record and its repeated use helps bring some cohesion to the record.

In the grand scheme of the record, these bright moments are unfortunately few and far between. I often catch the band doing these constant 8th note strums that tend to drag on for too long and I get so incredibly bored. Vertigo is the most obvious example of this as this strumming pattern goes unchanged for it's nearly 4 minute runtime. I also have a big issue with the vocals. Aside from the shouts and screams which account for maybe 30 seconds on the whole record, the vocals have about as much personality as a freshly painted white wall. The band saves the worst vocal performance for the end on Lich. The vocals on this track are heavily vocoded and on one particular part, the vocalist rapidly fires off words in this constant staccato rhythm that instantly becomes monotonous and annoying. To make things worse, layers of sour harmony are added on top, further making me question who on Earth thought this was a good idea.

This isn't the worst of it though as this record is marred by a rather large technical flaw, the drum mixing. If I were to guess what is happening here, I think there is side-chain compression applied to the kick drum, causing the volume of other drum elements to duck slightly when the kick drum is struck in order to make it punch more in the mix. It is a pretty standard mixing technique. However, it's application in this context causes the cymbals to be clamped down so hard making them sound incredibly unnatural; almost like a cut off drum sample being repeatedly triggered. It also creates this awful pulse that is frankly headache inducing. Moments like midway through Magnolia where we are pummeled by constant kicks is where this record becomes physically painful for me to endure. These types of technical oversights are what you could maybe expect on a band's first record, not on their fifth.

I guess it's safe to say I didn't enjoy this one and I'm really having a hard time seeing what all the hype is over. Even without the offensive technical issues, the song-writing and vocals are pretty bland. They may have been pioneers of this genre mash-up, but I'm not really seeing them push it forward, at least to the extent that some of the bands I mentioned here have done.