LUNARIS - ...the infinite
November 25, 2002, 21 years ago
(Elitist/Earache)
As a few of us have muttered over the last few years, futuristic black metal is really the new progressive rock if the inherent spirit of the term is given muse-worthy attention. Lunaris are a gathering of Borknagar, Spiral Architect and Satyricon people and the results are predictably predictable in terms of composite, macro effect, wildly unimaginable in terms of the 175 micro components. Like Arcturus, Rakoth, Ephel Duath, Limbonic Art or Alex Lifeson, Lunaris search almost too laboriously for sounds untried, as if accomplishing that feat must without question result in music. And I guess it does, if you are looking to be tickled in your art rock centres, or pushed to think, or prompted to suppose the theoretical limits of man's math-into-ear aspirations. I for one lament the thin, bass-less recording, the endless, pointless exercises in calculus rock, and above all, the powerless blast beats, which, with this poor mix, don't so much blast, as scratch. To say this has all been done before is a testimony to the genre's towering ambitions, not so much a dismissal of Lunaris' efforts. But yes, it has been done before, and its usefulness... man, I wonder how many people out there are gonna internalize all the stops and starts in this thing, and holler along live in beer-sloshing recognition to 'Growth Denied' or 'Mother Of Storms'.
