The Road Leads to Nowhere

Last House On The Left are a band that just need to be heard to be fully understood. I can write a million paragraphs on what an interesting and dark sound this band possess but if you really want to find out whats so impressive about Last House On The Left you have to hear them for yourself.

This EP is a joy to listen to and it immediately sets the tone with a sinister intro including piano and distant bell tolls. This short intro blends seamlessly into the first horrific track Forever Dying, a song that goes straight in and refuses to let up until the very end. This track starts with one of the melodic yet venomous sounding riffs that I love so much about this band.

If I had to pick any song from The Road Leads To Nowhere to keep on repeat it would definitely have to be the 4th track Some Like To Bleed. As an avid extreme metal fan I can honestly say it takes a lot for music to be so creepy its able to send shivers down my spine but this song manages with ease. The whole song is packed with a dark sound but when some of the more intricate riffing begins this song reaches a new level of sinister music. The fact that this is a band that stress that black metal is an inspiration to their music could explain the overall atmosphere of their sound. But where black metal looses some of its dark atmosphere by having over the top clowns painted up on stage this band gains a lot of the darkness as they just seem to be regular guys making irregular music.

This EP isn't likely to be winning awards for being the most original or technical piece of death metal but Last House On The Left certainly have a sound that is profoundly their own. I will always value how good the music sounds over how hard it is to play so I can really get into all the songs on this short but enjoyable record. So if you are the kind of metal fan who needs to hear music bordering on over indulgent fret board wankery then this music is probably not for you!

That said its not at all like this band are useless instrumentally. The Road Leads To Nowhere does have some really impressive aspects. The drumming for one is quite interesting blending many styles and sounding varied through out. But more memorable about the drumming is that fact that for once the double bass does not sound like a fucking typewriter. If you listen to the amount of extreme metal that I do its a regular occurrence to hear music plagued by drums that are impressive but sound terrible. But surprisingly a band thats relatively underground have managed to produce drums on this record that sound better than many popular death metal acts.

Vocally this album has a nice amount of range with Tyler being able to do good sounding low death metal grunts that are mixed this with high pitched growls. I actually wasn't impressed with the highs growls in this record at first but they really do sound quite unique and now I can't get enough of them. But along with the more than capable vocal styles is the brilliant lyrics to all the songs. In my opinion this band are very talented at writing lyrics and this EP shows this perfectly. There is simply more going on with these songs then the usual gore loving and violence obsessed lyrics death metal normally has. On this record the vocalist seems to be screaming sorrowful stories instead of the violent rantings that are common place in death metal. This is a welcome change as these lyrics seem like a twisted form of poetry or story telling and it its just another aspect which adds to the dark atmosphere of the music.

Personally I am unsure to what genre you can put on Last House On The Left. Some say its just death metal and I'm willing to go with that but its undeniable that it could also be viewed as the dreaded and hated genre that is deathcore. But believe me this is nothing like the rest of that genre. It possesses a much more mature sound that has got all the aspects to be a much loved piece of extreme metal. Theres no comb overs, no skinny jeans, no ironic t-shirts with Last House On The Left and this really does sound like proper music. Seek this out if you want a rewarding piece of modern death metal.