Last Breath

When I first heard this EP I was strongly and positively surprised. The second song, Clipa really opened my eyes for what this band reminded me of. When listening to the single, it never struck me that L.O.S.T. must have been listening a lot to early Therion. Much of their material sound like Lepaca Kliffoth and like what Symphony Masses would’ve sounded like without its symphonic parts and some of the stranger pieces.

Now, this does express itself through rather slow, minimalistic, heavy song backbones. The guitars sting into it all every now and then. We have melody, carefully laden by the keyboardist. There are breakdowns, the way the compositions circle. There are undertones from Therion all around it. The riffs and bass lines, the way they keep them hanging, have a Therion feel too.

It wouldn’t be fair to call this a total Therion-rip-off though, as L.O.S.T. have a very different guitar tone. It is stinging and pretty constant. Also L.O.S.T. never leaves the slow-tempo land, which they’ve mastered well enough. Unfortunately, I don’t think it’ll work for an entire album without more variation.

There’s one more thing that doesn’t really work: the vocals. I can live with the main vocalist, although he sounds rather mediocre. The vocalist that tries singing on Dreams in Black though, he shouldn’t do vocals anymore. I’m glad that the mix removes a little of his efforts. It seems like if he hadn’t any voice to start with, and it cracks deep into the core.

Sounding a bit like Therion wins my vote, and sounding this much like Therion while retaining some originality gets more of it, I suppose. I like this, but I think the repertoire must be broadened; some speed must be let in if they should go for a full-length in the future. Also, I’d be pleased to hear a vocalist with more range next time.