Forty-five minute doom/sludge/stoner/psych epics don’t come around all that often and so Seattle dwellers Lesbian have gone to great lengths (oh snap) to make their third crack at the full length that little bit more interesting and worth your time.
Forestelevision is quite the experience and Lesbian take their time to build sections of massive sound and move the piece onwards at a steady pace without it becoming boring, or trite or predictable. The music twists and dances between a multitude of sounds and influences and it has to be said that the most ambitious and evocative work by this group is certainly their best. Forestelevision is a terrific example of a band forgoing their own limits and letting the composition breathe with its own life.
The first section of Forestelevision is a mesmerising extended instrumental that takes in unnerving elements of dissonant sound structures and works them into an almost melodic trance-like passage before Dorando Hodous’ deep and guttural growl fleshes out the sinister tone with dark intonations. The hypnotic strangeness continues beneath great swells of guitar (Arran McInnis and Daniel La Rochelle) that are underpinned by steady drum beats and a constant, synth-like presence.
Lesbian transfer the sound into a higher gear and Forestelevision picks up a little pace along with a decidedly psychedelic hue and a deep harmonised vocal kicks the album into new realms of otherworldly curiosity. Switching step slightly gives Forestelevision a constant changing pattern which keeps you hooked and wanting to know where the band are going to take you next. The styles used fit together neatly – doom giving way to psych with shades of sludge and later black metal and classic rock elements making themselves known – and Lesbian have an obvious knack for incorporating the genres they enjoy into something they’ve created and giving it new directions. It’s really something.
Seventeen minutes in sees that off-balance beginning rear again, but this time with more rage burning over the discordant feelings of the rolling guitar. Hodous’ vocal takes on an urgent scorn and the avant-garde black metal textures stain and infiltrate every corner of the mind and then Lesbian turn another corner and fly head-on into wild passages of crunching guitar and mind-bending landscapes of heat and tripped out electro structures.
Around the twenty-five minute mark we hit another black metal style passage that’s all synth-laden and harsh screams and furious before the band segue into a stripped back moment of peace and reflection that again changes the entire mood of the piece. Lesbian have truly worked some kind of magic with Forestelevision as each different section (and it’s easy to note the shifts) has its own mood and atmosphere yet there’s a definite cohesion to the album as a whole and the contrasting movements in no way hold back the band and their capabilities.
The closing minutes of Forestelevision takes a sudden turn into classic 80s metal territory and echoes of King Diamond are heard in the high pitched wail of the vocal and the subsequent maniacal laughter is completely bonkers. Of course, it makes total sense considering the previous forty minute journey into the unknown that Lesbian has taken us on and when the harmonised vocal breaks and the drums rage and signal the end, you’ll want to go back and do it all over again.
See what they did there?
Find Lesbian on the internet, listen to their music and pre-order Forestelevision from Translation Loss Records ready for the June 25th release.
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