A bit like the Kenyans are at running, or the Americans are at whooping a lot, the Italians are bloody good at black metal. You don’t have to look further than recent releases by Patristic and Enisum. And now, it’s Lorn’s turn to hurl out another scoopful of atmospheric bliss as they release their fourth full-length record ‘Searing Blood’.
In almost formulaic style, this is 40 minutes long, consists of 6 tracks and has a picture of a snowy moutainscape on the front. However, this is a deeply panoramic, pendulously immersive and supremely written and produced record that would sit well amongst the Winterfylleth and the Afsky records on any vinyl collector’s shelf (ignoring the obvious alphabetical issues with this statement).
From the opening drum roll of the title track, you realise that this is the music of a landscape. It hangs with the desperate revolutions of the natural world, the voices of those who, and that which, has passed before and the impermanence of existence. The first half of the record builds to the glistening crescendo that is served in the form of ‘Leuchtenburg’ which twists and turns like a mountain path, finally leading into my favourite track ‘Gallows’.
On ‘Searing Blood’, Lorn have found a groove that is intense, emotionally charged and insanely listenable. This is the sort of mysterious black metal you want. None of that running marathons and whooping rubbish. Highly recommended.
Best Paired With: Icicles, Scraping The Earth With Your Fingernails, and A Watercolour Set.
Reviewed by Jaff.
Lorn – Searing Blood is out now on i, Voidhanger records.
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