Lust Hag

After releasing several short recordings (demos, an EP) and splits with other artists, US solo raw vampiric black / death metal act Lust Hag finally put out its self-titled debut album in early 2024. On the album's Bandcamp page, the music details the adventures and travails of a mysterious character known only as the Nameless Hag in a sword-n-sorcery fantasy drama. Lust Hag's sole proprietor Eleanor Harper comes from a background playing black metal, death metal, grindcore and hardcore punk in various bands and other solo music projects so going into this debut we can expect confrontational and aggressive music, not at all smooth or pretty, and taking no prisoners and no nonsense.

The hapless protagonist's tale starts, seemingly in cliffhanger style, in "Pursuit of the Nameless Hag", in straight-out 1990s-era epic symphonic BM style with a good dynamic balance of grinding melodic riffing and cold ghost-atmosphere synths. The riffs might come across as ugly and jagged, and the blast beat drumming is pounding, but they are all offset by the ethereal synths that bring a sinister feel and mood to the music. Above all, Harper's ranting spectral ghost-witch vocals add a wild and ferocious edge to the proceedings.

Across "Pursuit …" and the tracks that follow, the music carves its way through an astonishing array of rocking melodic riffs and headbanging rhythms in a dark and icy soundscape dimension. With each succeeding song, this distinctive universe of sighing frigid atmospheres, catchy if rugged riffs and busy thumping percussion opens up widely, revealing unexpected treasure that encompass dungeon synth, dark ambient, acoustic folk, progressive rock and noise influences. Almost against your will, you find yourself following Harper into many different and complex detours in this labyrinthine darkness – the often bouncy grooves in several tracks are too hard to resist! About the middle of the album, with songs like "Safety for Now …" and "Mother Miriam", the scale of the music starts to reach epic heights as acoustic folk guitar melody, noise and keyboard toy-music tunes make their appearance. The range of sounds and elements from different genres and sub-genres can be almost overwhelming but the songs are usually written to allow for slower mid-sections that build mood, atmosphere or a sense of dread and looming doom.

With all songs featuring catchy riffs and melodies, the paradox is that no one song stands out from the others for having a readily recognisable motif. The entire recording is wall-to-wall melodic / atmospheric raw BM maximalism with hardly a pause for reflection or to give stragglers time to catch up. The music does flow very well and maintains a constant powerful momentum that carries listeners all the way to the album's rousing resolution in "A Narrow Escape".

The album certainly delivers straight-out aggressive and feral music but the surprise is that the addition of symphonic BM elements and influences from other metal and some non-metal genres graces the music with beauty and majesty in parts. Songs are well-written though they can be very busy and sometimes the complex guitarwork can be overwhelming in its bumpy, jagged nature. With so many contrasts between different elements and genres, the music might be expected to be jarring but it actually harmonises very well and its flow is constant, energetic and focused on the end goal.

If Harper maintains this level of inspired musicianship and songwriting, her Lust Hag project may soon be producing masterpiece recordings and the only question about that is when they'll be coming out, not if.