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Blog Categories feature LIVLØST - Symphony Of Flies - Reviewed At Blackbloodvomitorium!

LIVLØST - Symphony Of Flies - Reviewed At Blackbloodvomitorium! Wednesday March 23 2022, 2:07 PM

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LIVLØST - Symphony Of Flies - Reviewed At Blackbloodvomitorium ! Check it out here at this link: https://www.blackmetalistkrieg.net/?p=14073

That Livløst were a band out of the canons we understood immediately. After the sick debut "Cold Skin" of 2019, where the band broke in with a rough and minimal old-school black metal, the following "Bråtebu" totally changed clothes, to wear clothes appropriate to a canonical ambient with dungeon synth colors, dark and evocative. What to expect just one year after this last effort? It is always said that the third album is that of truth and actually the fear in pressing play was so much, not in being disappointed by the band (we are still talking about underground) but in finding ourselves, for example, in front of the umpteenth mutation of a reality that to date has given very few guidelines on how to interpret one's sound. A typically black metal old school cover depicting a lake, with the forest that surrounds it and where white prevails over darker shades, is the calling card of "Symphony Of Flies". Without too many words, the third seal of Livløst best represents what can be called "atmospheric black metal" of thickness: not only has the band changed its appearance for the umpteenth time, trying to combine the black of the beginnings with atmospheric elements never ruffian but, in this new incarnation, has reached very high peaks of quality in the genre proposed, so much so as to leave us totally stunned. A journey that lasts forty minutes, where there is room for environmental elements and black metal outbursts that would make Beelzebub fall from his throne, with persuasive synth detachments that alternate with elegance with inhuman outbursts of blast beats and infernal screams.

The beginning of the title track is the best possible: an articulated song, where the band brings out all its repertoire and summarizes the content of the album in the best possible way, between bestial accelerations, disturbing slowdowns, sick riffing and depressing screams. The following "No Reason" takes us to more rarefied shores, with the atmospheric component to be the master thanks to a lethal mixture of synthesizers and mid tempos that emphasize the more depressive and reflective side of the Norwegian duo, with more than one reference to the previous "Bråtebu"; to be honest what is present throughout the album, as if the band wanted to show that they do not deny any stylistic choice of the recent past. And if "Holy Night" continues with a mid-tempo dragged and dark to the limit of the depressive, "Angelprofume" thinks of making us scapocciare, with its refrain that remains indelibly printed on the head. This is the classic black metal piece of clear Norwegian school, with a tight and obsessive riff that shows no sign of slowing down its run, and in the background the synths that do nothing but give further pathos to the song, which evolves in an epic and dreamy way, with keyboards that increasingly take the scene until they become a supporting element. "Red" and "Hostel" close the tour, underlining the nature of the "new" Livløst, between mid tempos, synths and the clear atmospheric / raw / depressive vein that has manifested itself throughout the album, bringing us back to the nineties with a one-way ticket, thanks also to the production that, although clean, is a bit weak especially as regards the guitars and drums that do not pump properly. Details that in the underground can and must be forgiven.

With this new effort Livløst manage to satisfy both the fans of the primordial debut and those of the following chapter, combining these two souls in a coherent and decisive way, evoking the glories of the old Norwegian school on more than one occasion, between echoes of Dismal Euphony, Gehenna, Djevel or first Ulver, without ever losing that touch of personality that is making the band become "great". Not a masterpiece but really an excellent album that could represent, for the historical period in which it comes out, a real "must have" of the genre projecting the band into that niche that is returning to where the Norwegian school deserves. - Blackbloodvomitorium

Release Date: September 17th, 2021

FFO: GEHENNA, TRELLDOM, RAGNAROK

Location: Norway

"Symphony of Flies" is the third Livløst's album, the two Norwegians are playing an uncompromising, grimly dissonant and bewitched black metal with definitively sinister atmospheres. Often difficult, frequently nightmarish, this stuff easily ranks as one of Nordic lands' more challenging and oblique offerings. And for us, one of his most fascinating. With a mix of various Norse black metal traditions, atmospheric and mid-tempo practices, and a radical approach to traditional notions of extreme music in its truest sense, ‘Symphony of Flies’ is undoubtedly highly demanding of the listener. ...a dreamlike descent into the realm of death.

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