A good bunch of Black Metal bands seem to be inspired by the rural surroundings they live in. Themes like anti-modernity, paganism and the worship of nature’s phenomena just don’t seem go to well hand in hand with multi-level buildings, rush hours, smog and hipster kids hanging around at Starbucks. On the other hand topics like isolation, depression, loneliness and confusion are way more present in todays urban centers then in rural areas and they are important topics for an uncountable number of Black Metal bands, just as much as Satanism and those mentioned above. Lantlôs pick up on those themes about the failures of modern man, and wrap it in music that could be described best as Post Black Metal, if you need to pigeon-hole this.
Lantlôs is basically a two men project, with its headquarters in the small town Rheda in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Who would have though anything of relevance would ever come out of there?! The word “Lantlôs” is Middle High German, meaning “without homeland”. Nebel (German: “fog”), the guitarist and main song writer, choose the name because he feels not at home anywhere in this world. The second full time member of the band is a very well known character of the European Black Metal scene: Neige from France, earning his props with quite a number of awesome bands like Amesoeurs, Peste Noir and Alcest of course.
It’s funny that although Neige didn’t join Lantlôs before .neon, the overall approach of this band was never too far away from the concept of his other band Alcest. The basis of .neon is surely Black Metal, taking influence from the Norwegian bands of the third wave, but at the same time Lantlôs incorporate different elements of Post Rock, Post Punk and Shoegaze, so that this record overall sounds very modern, perfectly underlining the whole lyrical approach.
.neon is a eclectic, incredible deep and intense record that just doesn’t get boring – it’s easily one of the best Black Metal-related records released in 2010 and shall be no disappointment for fans of modern approaches to the genre. The vinyl version is unfortunately sold out already, so you’ll have to stick to digital formats. Released by Prophecy Productions.
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