Wakar Cartel

It is hard to explain what kind of band Lugubrum are. They did start their career as the Belgian version of Darkthrone but since those days sure have changed. They already started their careers as oddballs but they only doubled down on being weird over time. I still vividly remember the first time I saw them live close to a decade ago. Despite seeing all sorts of fancy proggy and experimental black metal bands since still that was the oddest black metal gig I've ever seen.

Wakar Cartel was released without warning just before the very end of 2017. Seemingly just to mock all those pointless end of the year best of the year circle jerking. The black metal of this record is typical Lugubrum, in fact like Darkthrone they even reverted a bit more to a first wave sound. Although I think they overdid the intentional sloppiness somewhat it's once again pretty good. They still sound like a weird version of Panzerfaust era Darkthrone.

However I am pretty sure that the non black metal parts of this record will completely catch most people unaware. I get what they were doing however. The reason for this is kind of mundane, as a Dutch person I have watched quite some Belgian television over the years. Even during the first song I was immediately reminded of this television show "Man bijt Hond" this show would have bits and pieces of music here and there and those fragments very much resemble what we hear on Wakar Cartel. This makes it the most Belgian record I've ever heard. These non metal parts range for example from spoken word with trombone to some funky bass guitar coupled with clean guitar. Think of late night bar jazz.

This despite or maybe because of its quirkiness is quite an enjoyable listen. It's definitely not a record made with the usual intention black metal progressive or not gets made. To be honest I am not quite sure what the intention is myself despite even though I think I get where every odd on this record is coming from. It's quite remarkable that Lugubrum manage to throw such weird curveballs this far in their career. Deceptively though this is in some ways the most normally Belgian to be even more specific Flemish metal record most likely ever made.