Arrayed Claws

God knows why, but for the past year or so I've been trying to keep up with what's going on with current metal releases and review a good number of them. Now, I've written for a site where I've received weekly promos, so I'm well in aware of the fact that most metal does, in fact, suck. However, I've recently been facing a different problem. I'm in multiple Facebook groups where the type of metal I dig is regularly posted and I have lots of the friends who's taste I trust to give me recs. I've heard no shortage of good metal releases in the past year. The problem is it's not hard to find good new metal releases, but finding great ones is a different story. There are so many bands that are good but not great and they all start to blend together after a while. There are lots of reasons for this - some have good riffs and solid songwriting but completely lack originality, while others might have a really unique take on their style but the riffs might be a little lacking or the songwriting a bit loose. Often after discovering a long string of these bands with no clear standout to really fall in love with, I burn out on all this metal shit and end up listening to other genres for a few weeks. The sheer unabated awesomeness of Lorn's latest album (or EP depending who you ask) Arrayed Claws clawed me out of one of my sabbaticals from metal.

I checked out the song "Abstract Trap" (sorry, no 808s to be found here) and was immediately drawn back into metal's savage fray. This song in particular is definitely one of the better compositions I've heard come out of black metal. The violent insectoid riffing ebbing into an ominous doom lurch, the little dissonant flourishes and industrial undertones, the overall insanity - everything about this is perfect. While "Abstract Trap" is easily the highlight of the album, it does give a general idea of what we're in for. Although there's a lot more going on than high quality riffage, unique, hard-hitting riffs are the focal point of the album. The riffing style isn't necessarily that weird, but it's different enough to give them a fresh take on black metal. They're schizophrenic, often busy, and have a razor blade unhinged violence about them. Lorn will often add in a little DSO-ish dissonant embellishment at the end of a riff. They also do a really cool thing in the higher register where it feels like a steamwhistle train is careening towards you; it reminds me a lot of what Akhlys did on The Dreaming I.

I've seen Arrayed Claws called an atmospheric black metal release, which I'm not sure I agree with. Massive frenzied riffs being fired off like artillery shells is the main draw. However, Lorn aren't all violence and insanity all the time. They intersperse surprisingly gorgeous ambient passages throughout the release. This is something that doesn't always work and often just comes off as filler with many bands , but here they are well integrated, performed well and provide some almost jarring contrast. The final movement, "Aus Nebel Turm" is where their atmospheric side is at its most prominent. It starts with a nice laid back drumbeat, a brooding guitar line and synths that ooze like cough syrup. Being six minutes, I assumed this was going to give way to a cutthroat black metal feeding frenzy or maybe even a slow-burning black/doom stomp. However, about halfway in I realized that the black metal wasn't coming at all and that I didn't really want it to, anyway.

Lorn have come into something really special here. Like the debut albums of Verdunkeln and The Ruins of Beverast, it possesses a spitfire concoction of off-kilter originality, intriguing atmosphere and immense riffcraft that only comes around once in a long while. I'd be very surprised if Arrayed Claws isn't the pinnacle of Lorn's discography, but this has me very excited to dig into their past releases. Possessing moments of both unspeakable violence and hypnotic atmosphere, not to mention supreme weirdness, Lorn have done a great job at integrating a multitude of influences seamlessly. A lot of this has to do with the excellent sense of flow - their songwriting might not be traditional but they have a knack for making the riffs mesh together in a way that makes the songs sound like a grand sweeping opus, rather than an arbitrary collection of dope riffs. One of the most exciting new metal releases I've heard in a while, really.