Lunacy
"Profane Reflections"
Track Premiere
10/15/20 | N.B.
Six tracks of triumphant yet depressive and agonized raw black metal deliverance. Seattle's one-man black metal band Lunacy invigorates and elevates the requisite dreariness of DSBM with the fury and speed of classic '90s black metal.
Perfectly harsh and with the harmony and writing acumen on the level of Yellow Eyes or old-school Abigor (incidentally the album’s production and style recalls some classic material by the latter), this preternatural new force in the U.S. black metal underground has crafted a very distinctive sound for itself. Over the course of the album’s 28-minute run time, droning guitars play nicely with massive-but-natural-sounding drums performed by Ebony Pendant’s S.C.
Melancholic Invocations reminds us that maintaining a tortured and bleak vibe doesn’t have to mean suffering monotony or over-simplicity. Augmenting these feelings, masterfully interwoven and hauntingly beautiful synths lurk within most of these songs, and shine on the ambient track “Occult Meditations,” a fantastically somber and pensive dungeon synth interlude. Likewise, the closer “Outside the Castle Walls” is a transportive bit of cosmic synth ambience punctuated by one final twisted guitar melody.
Heed the words of Lunacy’s mastermind Z on the album’s creation, then stream its powerful opener “Profane Reflections” below:
“Shadows on the stone walls of a mental prison…cryptic labyrinths of an anxious mind…a weave of dark fantasy and bitter reality…bouncing between the laments of a forlorn figure and an exposition of the grim environment in which it finds itself in, Melancholic Invocations is a painting of the manifestations of a mind trapped within the cold walls of solitude. On the edge of total despair, serenity is found in the heart of the forest where life and death do not differ.
“‘Profane Reflections’ is the opener of the album and sets the themes for the rest of the project, both sonically and lyrically,” Z continues. “The album draws heavily on the enchantments of a dark winter environment. The tremolo picked melodies narrowly emerge from the frost-like layer of distortion, evoking a tempestuous atmosphere. I tried to invoke a misery that is both immediate and distant, a nausea that one has felt in their own life while recognizing that it has been felt all through history. In constructing the lyrics I put myself in the shoes of one who is alone with an ancient knowledge, knowing all too well the mysteries of the world without any hope of sharing them. I think we are all far too alone with ourselves, stuck within the confines of our own mental labyrinths. We know what the shadows on the wall look like, but will never see the candle producing them. To make a meaning of the shadows, that is our task and one of the main themes of this album.”
Preorder Melancholic Invocations on cassette October 16th at 12PM EST from Realm and Ritual.
