The Selected Ones

The distinctions between death metal, grindcore and death/doom are obvious to most listeners nowadays, but this wasn't always the case. The concept of 'death/doom' was relatively new when Lunatic Invasion made "The Selected Ones" in 1992. There were bands playing this style; My Dying Bride released their groundbreaking "Symphonaire Infernus et Spera Empyrium" EP that year (along with a decent debut album). Death/doom wasn't a codified ‘genre’ at this point though, and there were few rules on how to make it. Lunatic Invasion were free to express themselves without a ‘genre recipe’.

They may have benefited from having some rules though. “The Selected Ones” is a messy, inconclusive record that flits between poles. The band plays two styles, fast stuff and slow stuff. There is little attempt to bridge the two. The fast stuff is good. The band play the classic death/grind style with echoes of Terrorizer, Assück and Napalm Death ("Harmony Corruption"-era). Lunatic Invasion were not as good as those bands, but I’ve always liked this kind of death/grind. This stuff combines the simplicity and intensity of grindcore with the atmosphere and thickness of death metal. As such, songs like "Nuclear War", "Sacrifice" and the excellent "Incubus" are highlights.

The band is much less effective at slow speeds. Their ‘death/doom’ moments are similar to early My Dying Bride, minus the compositional skill. These guys sound amateurish and incoherent in comparison to the Peaceville band. Tracks like "The Fall" and "Enslaved in Darkness" are long, dull plods that absorb too much of the album’s run-time. The slower sections feel a little too self-conscious, without the freedom of the death/grind stuff. The addition of keyboards and female vocals is interesting, but it isn’t as well integrated as the contemporary British bands.

We should give Lunatic Invasion credit for being among the first wave of death/doom bands, but their name has been forgotten for a reason. This record isn’t bad. It has a thick and brutal production and the playing is as good as it needs to be. It is undone by the fact that the band were in transition when they made it (members of the band are wearing Blood and Agathocles shirts in the photo, they were emerging from the grindcore scene). This record will be of minor interest to fans of My Dying Bride and dISEMBOWELMENT. It is better to view this record from a death/grind perspective.