Release Date: October 25th 2024. Record Label: Sympatry Records. Format: CD/DD/Vinyl
Makebelieve - Track Listing:
1.OUT FOR BLOOD 04:50
2.BRIDGES 03:37
3.SUSPENSION OF DISBELIEF 05:58
4.OLD COUNTRY 07:32
5.STOIC 07:19
6.AXIOM 04:23
7.VAMPIRE 07:11
8.MAKEBELIEVE 04:27
9.MOVE ON 06:21
Members
AAL
EHA
DALE CROVER
TREVOR DUNN
TOSHI KASAI
Review
Low Flying Hawks return with their fourth full length album Makebelieve with core members AAL and EHA joined once again by MELVINS drummer Dale Crover, Tomahawk’s Trevor Dunn and legendary producer Toshi Kasai. This time round Low Flying Hawks opt for a gloomier and abstract style of Doom Metal and Sludge Metal compared to their previous albums. With a foreboding Shoegaze sound appearing, Low Flying Hawks develop a Alternative Metal sound compared to their previous trilogy of albums which allows this album to have a completely different sound that you initially expect.
The opening songs of Out For Blood and Bridges sets up the scene with distinctive and very different vocal styles which become quite extreme in places, especially on Bridges. The music itself is a mixture of Doom, Sludge, Prog Metal, Post-Metal and Ambient themes for a sound that’s quite diverse and very multilayered at the same time. Drawing upon a slight OCCULT nature for the creative story for Makebelieve, the grooves are plentiful with fine amounts of long drawn muscular sounds which become quite Psychedelic and trippy in nature.
There are brief moments where Low Flying Hawks draw upon sounds heard from their earlier records and inject a Doomgaze or Shoegaze aspect into the mix. With Dale Crover, Trevor Dunn and Toshi Kasai involved, the record has influences from the legendary bands they’ve all been involved with. Toshi applies his world class mixing and engineering skills into the mix for this record and this allows Makebelieve to sound EPIC throughout. The record is also quite solitary and mournful with some brief moments of uplifting Post-Doom and Post-Metal being employed within the more sombre and heaviest parts of the album within tracks such as Suspension Of Disbelief, Old Country, Stoic, Vampire and Move On.
Experimentation has always been one of the key factors to Low Flying Hawks providing their own great style of music and that’s true here with Makebelieve perhaps being the band’s most personal and emotionally charged record to date. The lyrics are quite thoughtful and even thought provoking at times which allows the album to provide a deeply satisfying conclusion when everything is said and done.
Makebelieve feels like Low Flying Hawks are going under a creative rebirth or musical transformation by using different styles of music they haven’t used before and saying goodbye to previous musical endeavours with this more foreboding and in some ways extreme style of music. The album offers no easy answers especially within the harsh vocal structures and intense melodic Post-Doom and Post-Metal passages that Low Flying Hawks strongly focus upon throughout the whole album.
Low Flying Hawks have provided another unforgettable album with Makebelieve and one that is perhaps their most important album to date. The band are always shrouded in mystery and rarely give any interviews which only adds to the whole beauty and intensity of Makebelieve. This is a beautiful, complex and emotionally unforgiving record that will rank as one of the best records of the year.
Words by Steve Howe
Makebelieve is available to buy now on DD/Vinyl via Sympatry Records
Links
