Strange that a copy of the Southern Lord reissue of the self-titled 2005 debut from one-man black metal "legend" Wrest's Lurker of Chalice project showed up in my mailbox just days after I posted about Leviathan's "Massive Conspiracy Against All Life", the comments for which ended up containing numerous mentions of this album. And I have to say, while it's "rumored" (I suppose) that "Massive Conspiracy Against All Life" was going to be a Lurker of Chalice album at one point, I just don't see much of a connection here, and must disagree with those who feel that "Massive Conspiracy..." should've been released under the Lurker of Chalice banner. Sure, there are similarities in terms of some of the sneering vocal work and faster, more Leviathan-esque black metal runs, but here those chord progressions are even more twisted and mangled, bending and churning in an even more severe and tormented manner (if you can imagine). And not that Leviathan's work is one-sided at all, but this is so obviously far more diverse! Take for example the unexpectedly dingy, sludgy, crawlingly paced doom of "Minions". Not to mention the more prominent, melodically throbbing basslines; tactful synth melodies; droning, melodic yet abstract lead lines; or similarly droning, chant-like appearances of not-exactly-singing that creep into play throughout the compositions. Everything just feels a bit more vast and experimental, with a good amount of obscurely layered guitar work that often creates cascading waves of ambient texture as opposed to tangible "riffs", as well as the occasional presence of samples (which are also quite efficiently employed). I'm honestly not entirely sure you could truly classify this as "black metal", though most seem to, as the parallels are quite far from clear-cut. It's just an entirely different beast from Leviathan... it really is.
Things do start off a little slowly with a less-than-stellar two-minute instrumental, so I was initially very uncertain as to how I'd feel about this album, but within five to 10 minutes it was clear that this is yet another admirable piece of work from Wrest. And yet again I'm quite late to the game in discovering an appreciation for what his output has to offer.
I'm only posting one song, so keep in mind that this is but a small representation of the album as a whole:
Lurker of Chalice "Spectre as Valkerie Is"
This reissue also contains a bonus track, "Wail", previously only available on the out of print 2xLP edition of the album, making for a total of 10 tracks in 68 minutes. And here's where I complain about trivial details, but I have to point out that I find it incredibly irritating that there's absolutely no mention of the bonus track on the CD's digipack presentation whatsoever. Especially since the bonus track appears smack in the middle of the tracklist (it's the seventh of the 10 songs). It wasn't until I looked up the album in the iTunes store, where it just happened to be, that I saw the complete track listing and had my suspicions as to the bonus track's location confirmed. Relatively minor details, I know, but that kind of shit still bugs me, because it's just stupid, you know!?
Nonetheless, I think this puppy used to go for absolutely obscene prices on eBay, so... now it's back in print and more widely available at no extra cost. Pick it up if you like what you hear.
Get It
Southern Lord
The End Records
Relapse Records
Amazon.com (mp3)
iTunes (mp3)
Comments
one of the best USBM album! Wrest is a fucking genius!
4.23.2008 | By Carlos
I have been waiting forever for this to be re-released, and it’s as amazing as I’d hoped it was
4.23.2008 | By Chris
i agree, Massive Conspiracy is totally different, and much more in line with the previous Leviathan material… this Lurker Of Chalice reminds me a lot of Manes’ perfect VILOSOPHE album… certainly too diverse in its sounds for any labels to really do it justice, let alone “Black Metal”.
4.23.2008 | By Marcus Garvey
the story goes like this (to the best of my knowledge): Wrest wanted out of his contract with Moribund for all of his future Leviathan releases for reasons unknown to me (and probably anyone not in the ‘know’). So to get out of the contract, he kills Leviathan and was to release MCAAL under the LoC moniker via Battle Kommand. Needless to say it didn’t work out and Moribund ended up releasing the album. I’m sure there’s more to the story that I’m forgetting (like the LoC/Nacht split… the Nacht material from that planned split is out now and apparently it’s still going to be released but with new content from each party in the future).
That aside, I agree with you. The new Leviathan, although bearing some obvious resemblances, is definitely in a league of it’s own. If anything, maybe the ‘A Silhouette in Splinters’ (the vinyl only LP but soon to be released on disc btw) could be mistaken for a LoC release. This is all subjective though.
I have both previous CD versions (SL + THR) and vinyl of this LoC album (as well as both demo’s) so I’m skipping on this. It’s nice they included the vinyl only track on here but anyone who has access to Soulseek, etc could probably skip re-buying this and download the bonus track. Also, if you lurk hard enough, I’ve seen plenty of the vinyl around, still sealed, at stores and in distros.
4.23.2008 | By -cja
How good is the bonus track? Is it worth buying another copy of the album? I’m already $80 in the hole for the last one. And before someone says “Just download it,” I don’t like listening to MP3’s.
It really annoys me that Southern Lord limited this thing in the first place. What was the point of that? Just so they could cash in on it later? I’m getting fed up with all the “remastered limited special edition digipack with bonus tracks” bullshit. Just release one damn version of the album and keep it in print for more than a fuckin week!
It seems to be harder and harder for me to find the CDs I want, let alone, try to figure out which version of the damn thing to buy. And don’t even get me started on these labels remastering and re-releasing Death and Opeth albums. That’s just completely unnecessary.
Okay, rant over.
4.23.2008 | By gordeth
I totally know what you mean. And in my honest opinion the bonus track isn’t particularly worth the trouble if you’ve already spent a ton on the first pressing. It’s the least interesting track on the disc, I’d say.
4.24.2008 | By Andrew Aversionline
DAMMIT. they’re remastering the death albums? now that strikes a chord with me. not that im surprised, but in the case of Death it is more than unnecessary. each of those albums has a distinct sound. homogenizing the catalog is just wrong. all theyre gonna do is make it LOUD AS FVCK anyway. whats wrong with just turning up the volume on the original version?
4.24.2008 | By Marcus Garvey
@gordeth… both the Southern Lord and Total Holocaust versions of this album, when initially released, were very limited. combined, i think it was a few hundred shy of 2000 copies between the two pressings. THR for the most part always did/does limited pressings. no clue as to why SL went down that path with this given the hype around Leviathan at the time.
4.24.2008 | By -cja
This is some good ish. Yes, it’s some distance away from black metal, and all the stronger for it.
4.24.2008 | By Invisible Oranges
To my mind it is better to have released MCAAL under the rubric of Leviathan, for it is certainly more in line with the musical direction of that project. It is also, in my non-humble opinion, one of the better releases of the past few ( say, three) years.
If this is the end of Leviathan, then that project was, in retrospect, the strongest and most prolific yet in Black Metal.
I agree that Lurker is not Black Metal at all. I am, personally, bored by it, tending to go sleepy-bye about half way through.
5.2.2008 | By Carl