Review: The Last of Lucy – Godform

Review by Sandre the Giant

The Last of Lucy have been churning out some pretty hefty slabs of tech death in the last few years, and their latest work, ‘Godform’, is here to reinforce and reinvigorate a tech death scene that runs the risk of stagnation. Their last record, ‘Moksha’ was a furious blast of fresh air into a fetid scene, and their latest, out now through Transcending Obscurity, has some work to do.

‘Moksha’ was always going to be a tough act to follow, but if anything The Last of Lucy have upped the ante in both technicality and intensity. Opener ‘Wormhole’ is blazing fast and devastatingly brutal, but it veers in all kinds of directions as well. There’s touches of mathcore in the incandescent ‘Twin Flame’, while the quieter passages of the title track provide even more evidence that The Last of Lucy are maturing and growing in songwriting. Their work has always been technically proficient, and they’ve never been afraid of utter carnage in their riff work either, but it appears that the grasp of atmospheric enhancements has only tightened. This allows tracks like ‘Sentinel Codex’ to display not only a brutal efficiency but a magnificent grandeur almost. The Last of Lucy have such sights to show us…

‘Godform’ is a stunning slab of technical death metal. It possesses all the fretwork chaos you’d expect, a devastatingly heavy low end engine powering it along, and guttural roars tearing the skies above them. ‘Godform’ showcases the very best aspects of technical death metal, a collection of songs that not only wow in musicality but shred their way into your brain and stay hooked in there for a while. Excellent stuff.

https://www.facebook.com/thelastoflucyofficial/

https://thelastoflucy.bandcamp.com/track/agni

https://thelastoflucyband.bandcamp.com/album/godform

Review: The Last of Lucy – Moksha

Review by Sandre the Giant

California’s The Last of Lucy are back five years after their debut, ‘Ashvattha’ to bring us ‘Moksha’, a new entry into the world of technical death metal. Their luminous, science fiction album art and lyical themes of spirituality may not seem the most obvious mix but hell, it’s out on Transcending Obscurity in a couple of weeks so it’s definitely going to worth a listen.

Opener ‘Moksha’ wastes little time in getting straight into the virulent tech death maelstorm; eye popping guitar work spirals out into a blizzard of drumming and a sharp, visceral vocal shriek. This is uber-modern death metal, taking the cues from the likes of Archspire, Obscura and Symbolik, throwing a million riff ideas at a wall and in this case they all somehow stick. There’s some nice atmospheric flourishes swelling behind the likes of ‘Agni’, while the spidery melody lines of ‘Ego Death reminds me of Psyopus. The band used to have more of a mathcore bent, and you can definitely see it taking hold every so often. It’s a surprisingly memorable as well, considering the blinding techincal wizardry on show; it doesn’t feel soulless or sterile. The likes of ‘Rituals of the Abraxas’ and the carnage of ‘Temple of Rati’ will blow your mind but possess a self assured groove about them that you wouldn’t soon forget.

What I really like about ‘Moksha’ is that there’s very little fucking about; the album is done in little over half an hour, and despite the musicianship on display never feels overly long or unnecessarily technical. The Last of Lucy are straight in, execution, and out again which is fairly refreshing in a genre that occasionally disappears completely up its own arse. ‘Moksha’ is death metal for those of you who like a million notes a song and low end that’d scrape the Mariana Trench, and that’s me. I’m all over this.

https://www.facebook.com/thelastoflucyofficial/

https://thelastoflucy.bandcamp.com/

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