Dekadens

“Dekadens” is the fifth Lifelover recording out of six. Originally released in 2009 as their first and only EP, it features for the (again) first and only time a true drummer, Non, which is joined by Fix's bass, H.'s rhythm guitars, ( )'s vocals and B, performing vocals, piano and guitars.

"Dekadens", which - since it is an EP - is significantly shorter than the usual Lifelover full-lengths, is a true watershed in Lifelover's career, not only for the presence of Non on the drums, but even for the fact that Lifelover's sound gets heavier, less melodic and way more "compact", that is: no more sudden breaks between slow acoustic and fast, heavy electric parts, less piano tunes, no more "inserts" of samples of any kind: "Dekadens" is actually a "professional" recording, just as the follower "Sjukdom", which will be the last Lifelover album; even ( )'s vocals here are way more carefully studied than ever before.

The opener, Luguber Framtid, is a perfect example of the new Lifelover direction: a heavy, moderately fast melody starts along with ( )'s raw, low vocals and B's always brilliant solo tremolo picking melodies, but this pattern will accompany us until the end of the track, with no acoustic passages or breaks whatsoever; we have, though, a nice and simple guitar solo towards the end. Even Myspys follows the same pattern, and if ( )'s harsh vocals are good as ever the song itself sounds actually a mere repetition of the former one. Similarly boring is Major Fuck Off, which presents no guitar melodies at all, only power chords in the background and some high screams by ( ).

Fortunately, the second part of "Dekadens" is way more interesting, inspired and catchy than the first one: Lethargy presents, actually, an entirely new musical theme for Lifelover, a catchy rock track in which vocals are performed by mainman B, in an antirely clean way (and in English!), the same B who performs a nice, melancholic guitar solo matching the lyrics ("making pictures of stale emotions / uncontrolled dreams of exploding skies / bathing in waters of calm indifference"). Then, Lifelover explores yet another style in Androider, which has actually a "robotic" feeling (even if I do not find anything "gothic" on here, as many say), where the band chose to use their trademark solo guitar melodies, but focusing the attention another time onto H.'s rhythm guitars, a feature that you will not find on their first recordings.

While Visdomsord seems to me another filler, being slow and almost entirely acoustic apart from the presence of B's trademark electric guitar repeating some notes over and over, the last song of the lot, Destination: Ingenstans, manages to save and greatly close an overall enjoyable and nice EP; ( )'s vocals are desperate as ever, but they soon fade into long acoustic passages interspersed with some nearly-thrash metal riffs.

Lifelover's "Dekadens" is, probably, the worst Lifelover recording ever - if we do not take into account the unhearable "Promo" of 2005, but since Lifelover's discography is so amazingly great, innovative and inspired, even being the worst part of it transforms "Dekadens" into a good, well-written and pleasant EP. The new Lifelover direction will then fully realize into the following full-length, "Sjukdom", but already here we can hear a significant "metal" approach to the tracks, which are generally more compact and heavy, with less piano tunes, solo guitar melodies and abrupt changes of tempo and structure (i.e.: acoustic passages and clean vocals, exchanged for heavy guitars and harsh vocals and viceversa, as you can hear on Nackskott), in order to obtain a more professional and solid sound. I would recommend "Dekadens" only to those who want to complete their knowledge of Lifelover, being aware that here they won't find their unique style that created masterpieces such as M/S Salmonella or Mental Central Dialog; they will find instead some nice and, every now and then, catchy metal tracks, in which Lifelover's "spontaneous" vein has been "professionalized", but into a pleasant way.

Yes I'm one of those people curious to know why after 3 albums Lifelover decided to record an EP of 7 short songs. I've got the actual EP which has quite lavish packaging with a booklet that includes lyrics to all the songs and a set of carefully staged photographs of scenes of urban desolation, loneliness, squalor and the back cover of one previous Lifelover album. (Who's doing lines of coke over a picture of a nude woman with streams of blood running down her thighs?) At the risk of being accused of presuming to know more than the Lifelover men do about their music, I am guessing that Lifelover may be transitioning into a new phase in their career, especially as they have a live drummer who also contributes to the songwriting. The music on this mini-album ("Dekadens" is half the length of previous albums) is very different from what I've got used to from these guys: it's much more urgent, even desperate in parts, and the guys' attitude seems more hardened and crazed. The singing is much more on the edge as if vocalist Kim Carlsson aka ( ) actually lives the life and experiences he's singing about (and he may do for all I know) and they've affected him more deeply than even he imagined. The style of music is unsettled though there's a general tendency for the musicians to go in a tough, near-thrashy metal direction: in the space of 26 minutes we jump from black metal / post-rock fusion ("Luguber Framtid") to clean black metal complete with near-grim vocals, banshee screaming and a frosty atmosphere ("Major Fuck Off"), some Gothic-sounding urban blues with jangly piano ("Androider"), moody post-rock with field recordings and voice samples ("Visdomsord") and a mixture of all of these in the schizophrenic mini-drama "Destination: Ingenstans" which has ( ) acting out his own tortured Private Idaho.

No doubt about it, ( )'s singing is the best thing here: no matter what genre or combination of genres the band plunges into, this guy is more than capable of singing in the style appropriate for that music - he seems to relish it and is absorbed completely in the style's demands with feeling and zest. Most of the music is tight and super-efficient so that each song, no matter how short it is (and some can be very short), is a complete self-contained unit and none of them sounds unfinished. Every moment is made to count and a couple of middle of tracks "Lethargy" and "Androider" are very compact though the music may vary wildly and the moods go from one extreme to the next.

It's possible that listeners might find this disc very rushed with some songs being so compact in what they include that they become a "blink-and-you'll-miss-'em" blur in their impact on the listener. The mix of genres, sometimes within the one song with new things happening right up to or near the end, may suggest the band can't make up its collective mind about where it's going or what it's doing. There's the danger that listeners might think less of the band's commitment to the music and how seriously it should be taken if the musicians appear to be experimenting or playing with their style just for the heck of it and not because the subject matter demands it. There is a definite unity in the EP but some people may get more out of it if they listen to individual songs first and get used to them rather than try to listen to the whole disc all the way through. The EP does lend itself as a collection of independent songs on one level and as a collection of related songs with inter-related themes on a different level.

Gah, it's just a short recording and I managed to write as much as I would for an 80-minute set. This is a Lifelover that has distilled and condensed the range of what the band is capable of and has done so far into a compact package that for the band is direct and straightforward. It could be said though that maybe "Dekadens" is too condensed and that some songs need to be stretched out a bit more, made a little longer, to breathe easier and allow passages of different musical styles to integrate and flow into each other better.

I was really looking forward to this release but also had this feeling that something would be different. Of course Lifelover itself is already different from the horde of black metal bands these days, but here they've put something out I didn’t quite expect. Previous albums sounded frustrated, depressive, angry and nostalgic with a good dose of self-mockery. Erotik felt like if you were walking outside in the city late at night, with still some alcohol left in your veins from an earlier drinking session, while wandering senselessly past empty city streets and asking yourself what the hell you are doing there.

The difference with Erotik is that Dekadens is just more metal sounding, much more than I’d like Lifelover to ever be. The first song ‘Luguber Framtid’ starts out with some soft sounds but quickly we hear a anguished scream provided by Kim, while the guitars are kicking in. The guitars sound well and blend in together nicely, sometimes your hear beautiful clear guitars on top of the riffs. What you immediately notice is that the guitars sound much more heavy, but at the same time more atmospheric. This is how a large part of this EP sounds for me, altough I’m really suprised by how metal the sound is at times. The guitars are heavier than ever by the end of ‘Myspys’. They almost sound like typical metal riffs. Although Kim’s vocals are good, they come nowhere near the greatness of a song like ‘Välkommen Till Pulvercity’ from Erotik.

This EP full of good ideas, but sometimes it looks like if they could haven taken the music to a more level than they actually did. Like if they didn’t give the songs the depth they need. Typical Lifelover elements like melancholic clean guitars are present but not as depressing sounding as they did on earlier releases. The depressive part of the music seems almost to be replaced by heavy guitars and that’s what I miss.

So what do I really think of this? Things that made Lifelover a good band for me (and undoubtedly for others too) are present but there are a few things I miss, or are less there. The heavy, almost thrashy sounding guitars are good, only not for this band. It just feels out of place and chaotic. Still, I can’t say that this EP is bad. It’s just not what I’d like to hear from Lifelover and hope the next release will be differerent. Nevertheless, a band should always carry out their own artistic vision.

I love Lifelover and somehow they go through phases with me. What I mean by that is that I listen to them religiously and then I don't listen to them at all. I was going through the latter when Dekadens came out. Konkurs and Erotik are my favorite releases, hitting both Depressive Rock tones, like Katatonia, and hitting high pitched ghost howls, thanks to Kim Carlsson. I will say that I was eager to hear Non's drumming, since their last drummer, S, left the band earlier this year.

Dekadens follows the same techniques and sounds as Konkurs, but it doesn't flow as well. I'll admit there were a few catchy songs on Dekadens, but really the only ones I liked a lot and worked their way into my favorite Lifelover songs were Lethargy and Myspys. Most of the songs were sloppy, and followed the same techniques on drums. The saving point of the EP was the vocals by Kim, which are always good, especially in his work in his solo band, Hypothermia.

Now, I don't hate Dekadens, but I will say it's not the best Lifelover release and it's by far not the worst. I don't like their Promo at all. It's like an album that you can't skip tracks on. I will say that once they found their sound, this is the worst release. Pulver, their most raw release is even better then Dekadens.

I thought the whole 5 or 6 guitar track thing is getting old. I thought they'd go for a different way to produce their ambience. The bass is rarely heard in the album, unlike in Konkurs and Erotik, where you can clearly hear everything the bass does. I'm not much for bass, but it does make Lifelover who they are when you can hear the bass. The synth and piano tracks are great as always, but at times they seem a little lifeless, which is rare, especially for this band. B usually does a great job at piano tracks, as well as his spoken tracks, which seemed to also be non-existant.

I hope the next full length really isn't anything like this release, because this one, though short, is pretty shitty for a Lifelover release. The shortness just adds to that I think. They should've just passed this EP and made a full length that flowed better then this one. I wouldn't suggest that you start with this EP, but rather get it after you explore the band's talent.

Last year's full-length Konkurs was a pants-dropping affair which transformed my mild but bland curiosity towards this band into a tumescent state of attention. It was all at once graceful, sad, plucky, epic and ridiculous, ample evidence of a band on the fringe of the oft-suffocating genrification that is black metal, doom metal, banana metal, 'depressive' rock, and the like.

Not knowing what to expect, as you can really never know what to expect from this band, I awaited the follow-up EP Dekadens with 7 tracks and nearly 30 minutes of material. My reaction is about as mixed as the chaotic spectrum of emotions present here. Some of the songs are right on the Konkurs level, like the melancholic black rock of "Lethargy" and the go-go gothic "Androider" with its tortured vocal garbles. "Destination: Ingestans" is another bright moment with its spacious, droning guitars that recall the best 90s shoegazer rock, though it breaks for both sultry acoustics and a fucking THRASH riff of all things. Other tracks like "Luguber Framtid", "Myspys" and the more directly black metal "Major Fuck Off" were pleasing enough for the first listen, but I did not feel any pang of loss at their passing.

The Dekadens EP should provide enough cream to fill the cakes of any Lifelover fan as they await the next full-length. It sounds quite lovely, and I'd count a few of the tracks among the band's better material, but I wasn't left the same post-coital soggy mass on the floor for it as I was Konkurs. Still, "Lethargy" is like suckling a teat of sweet milky regret, and the EP is almost worth it for that track alone. It should be dropping very soon, unlike your credit card balance.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com