Lord Dying - Clandestine Transcendence (Album Review)

Release Date: 19th January 2024. Record Label: MNRK Heavy. Formats: CD/DD/Vinyl

Clandestine Transcendence - Tracklisting

The Universe Is Weeping

I Am Nothing I Am Everything

Unto Becoming

Final Push Into The Sun

Dancing On The Emptiness

Facing The Incomprehensible

A Brief Return To Physical Form

A Bond Broken By Death

Break In The Clouds (In The Darkness Of Our Minds)

Soul Metamorphosis

Swimming In The Absence

The Endless Road Home

Members

Erik Olson (Guitar/Vocals)

Chris Evans (Guitar)

Alyssa Mocere (Bass)

Kevn Swartz (Drums)

Review

Clandestine Transcendence is the new album from Sludge Metallers Lord Dying which is their first album in five years. The Portland, Oregon natives return with a more outlandish and progressive sound that features a more operatic sound which features the band's usual flair for Doom, Thrash, Stoner and Sludge Metal dynamics. There are elements of Prog Metal storytelling which the band have been using since their 2019 album. Shades of Mastodon, OPETH, GOJIRA and EYEHATEGOD can be heard within Clandestine Transcendence with Lord Dying still creating their own exciting and dynamically powerful sound. The main THRASH based sound is perhaps the main creative engine for Lord Dying to deliver their intense melodic grooves with a mixture of clean vocals and harsh growls that have moments of ferocious aggression and sublime Psychedelic Sludge energy.

This is the first album to feature Alyssa Mocere on Bass and Kevin Swartz on Drums even though they've been members of Lord Dying since 2019 and they bring a more fully fleshed and realised sound to Lord Dying not heard since their acclaimed debut release. The album opens with a set of great tracks (The Universe Is Weeping, I Am Nothing I Am Everything) that showcases the more aggressive and adventurous Lord Dying with moments of Classic Hard Rock, Heavy Metal and Thrash Metal alongside their standard Doom/Sludge Metal sound. The songs are varied in tone and how they're fully delivered with sometimes an EXTREME style being played which surprised me along the way. This feels like Lord Dying playing new experimental ideas against their usual style of music they're ultimately known for.

The third track Unto Becoming sees Lord Dying embraces MASTODON-esque world building with a flashy NWOBHM energy being played against a subtle OPETH prog rock flow whilst still allowing Lord Dying to deliver their strongest material to date and keeps that winning creative energy throughout the remainder of the album. This track alone is aggressive whilst showing a more restrained style of music from Lord Dying. They let their aggressive grooves and sounds only take centre stage when the time calls for it.

Fourth track Final Push Into The Sun continues with the extreme energy of the previous track but with a more proficient and technically delivered performance which harks back to the mid-00's of Progressive Sludge Metal with modern day Psychedelic energy. The song is played at a breakneck speed which perhaps makes it challenging to listen to all the multiple styles of music the band play on this track alone. However, the album is always exciting and has a lot to say even within the more subdued and quieter moments of the album. The vocals become theatrical but you can understand the creative reasons why the band went with this direction.

With this four tracks out of the way, Lord Dying have given the listener a cool idea of what to expect for the rest of the album with many dark twisted moments of Progressive Sludge Metal which has some killer Classic Hard Rock duelling guitars appearing more and more with tracks such as Dancing On The Emptiness, A Bond Broken By Death and Soul Metamorphosis. There's also some exquisite shorter paced tracks such as Facing The Incomprehensible and A Brief Return To Physical Form which both once again show different sides to Lord Dying. 

Clandestine Transcendence is a warped Psychedelic journey into the more experimental areas of Doom, Sludge and Stoner Metal with Lord Dying delivering their heaviest and trippiest album to date. The record runs for nearly an hour which means there's a lot to take in for this album. However, this is a wonderfully surreal release which is helped along by awesome production values which are handled by the legendary Kurt Ballou at his famed God City Studios. Lord Dying are back with a vengeance and they've ultimately delivered their best album to date. 

Words by Steve Howe 

Thanks to Lauren at Rarely Unable PR for the promo.

Clandestine Transcendence will be available to buy now on CD/DD/Vinyl via MNRK Heavy USA and MNRK Heavy Europe

Links

Facebook | BandCamp | Instagram

Progressive sludge outfit Lord Dying release new animated video 'The Endless Road Home'

Credit: Neil DaCosta

Portland progressive sludge masters Lord Dying have unveiled their haunting new animated video for 'The Endless Road Home'. It's the closing track of their long-awaited new full-length, Clandestine Transcendence, which is released 19th January 2024 via MNRK Heavy.

Watch the video to 'The Endless Road Home' here: https://youtu.be/Yuw4F8hRyCc

Pre-order Clandestine Transcendence here: https://lorddying.ffm.to/clandestinetranscendence

Frontman Erik Olson comments on the latest single: "'The Endless Road Home' is dedicated to all the road dogs, travellers, bands, crew, people that make tours happen, people that go to shows and general rabble rousers. We salute you.”

Lord Dying transform tragedy into triumph. From the earliest rumblings of their first demo and self-titled EP (both issued in 2011), through the piledriving force of Summon The Faithless (2013) and crushing despair of Poisoned Altars (2015), the band have conjured masterfully melancholic heavy music for the misanthropic, with grit and grime.

In 2019, they delivered Mysterium Tremendum, a record Kerrang! declared a “prog-metal masterpiece.” The heady and adventurous existential meditation on death kicked off a trilogy and that story continues in 2023 with an increasingly ambitious follow-up, the aptly named Clandestine Transcendence.

Lord Dying cofounders Erik Olson (guitar, vocals) and Chris Evans (guitar) are joined by Alyssa Mocere (former bassist for Eight Bells), and Kevin Swartz (current drummer of Tithe). Chicago Reader crowned Mysterium Tremendum, “a beautiful meditation on tragedy.” Produced by Converge guitarist Kurt Ballou (High On Fire, Code Orange, Kvelertak) at his God City Studios, Clandestine Transcendence steps even further into the great unknown, filled with riffs and vibes.

Mysterium Tremendum (Latin for “awe-inspiring mystery” or “terrible mystery,” depending on one’s view of existence) began a narrative centered on a central character the band calls The Dreamer, a conceptual theme that drove expansive, sometimes monstrous, and even plaintive and vulnerable music. Olson describes The Dreamer as an immortal being who wants to die. On Clandestine Transcendence, he gets that wish.

Woven throughout the songs, that story and its rich thematic material inform an immersive listen. Tension, drama, and atmosphere abound all over songs like 'The Universe Is Weeping' and 'Unto Becoming.' The massive scope and melodic vocals found on album three expand further on Clandestine Transcendence. Sharpened songwriting, emphasising hooks, helps push both extremes of the band beyond prior limits. Simply put, the softer side is even dreamier; the heavy side is twice as brutal.

Lord Dying are:

Erik Olson – vocals/guitar
Chris Evans – guitar
Alyssa Maucere – bass/vocals
Kevin Swartz – drums

For more information:

http://www.facebook.com/LordDying
http://twitter.com/Lorddying
http://instagram.com/lorddying
https://www.mnrkheavy.com
https://www.facebook.com/MNRKHeavy
https://www.instagram.com/MNRK_heavy
https://www.twitter.com/MNRKHeavy

Clandestine Transcendence Track listing:

1. The Universe Is Weeping

2. I Am Nothing. I Am Everything

3. Unto Becoming

4. Final Push Into The Sun

5. Dancing On The Emptiness

6. Facing The Incomprehensible

7. A Brief Return To Physical Form

8. A Bond Broken By Death

9. Break In The Clouds (In The Darkness Of Our Minds)

10. Soul Metamorphosis

11. Swimming In The Absence

12. The Endless Road Home

Thanks to Hold Tight PR for all of the details.

Lord Dying - Mysterium Tremendum (Album Review)

Release date: April 26^th 2019. Label: eOne. Format: CD/DD/Vinyl

Mysterium Tremendum – Tracklisting

1.Envy The End 05:34

2.Tearing at the Fabric of Consciousness

3.Nearing the End of the Curling Worm

4.The End of Experience

5.Exploring Inward (An Unwelcome Passenger)

6.Severed Forever

7.Even the Darkness Went Away

8.Freed From the Pressures of Time

9.Lacerated Psyche

10.Split From a World Within, Devoid of Dreams Death, The Final Loneliness

11.Saying Goodbye to Physical Form

Members

Erik Olson-guitar/vocals

Chris Evans-guitar

Matt Price-bass

Chase Manhattan-drums

Review

Mysterium Tremendum is the new album from Lord Dying and it’s a concept about about Life and Death. Or what awaits people on the other side. Well according to the band anyway. The album is perhaps Lord Dying most personal album to date. As the album deals with many complex dark themes and this allows Lord Dying to experiment with their standard Sludge/Doom Metal sound.

The whole feel of the album will surprise you in many ways with the band experimenting with genres such as Prog Rock, Prog Metal, Psych and even Folk Rock. Mysterium Tremendum is a dark and mysterious album with the early songs setting up a gloomy and caustic atmosphere that lingers onto the very end of the album.

Songs such as Envy The End, Nearing The End Of The Cutting Worm and The End Of Experience sees Lord Dying drawing influences from bands such as Yes, Metallica, Mastodon and OPETH. The end result is dark, surreal, trippy and hypnotic. The sludgy grooves from Lord Dying previous albums are there in the background. However this is a more focused and more grown up Lord Dying that I personally didn’t expect.

The production on Mysterium Tremendum is excellent and Lord Dying have never sounded this good before especially on the 2^nd half of the album where songs such as Severed Forever, Freed From The Pressure Of Time and “Split From a World Within, Devoid of Dreams Death, The Final Loneliness” show you how far Lord Dying have come as musicians since their debut album.

Compare this album to their debut album and you wouldn’t know it was the same band. Lord Dying have delivered their best album to date with Mysterium Tremendum. Some of their established fan-base may not enjoy the album at first. As it’s so vastly different to their earlier material. However it’s good to see Lord Dying creating a more diverse sound.

Mysterium Tremendum is a thrilling and brilliantly bold album that Lord Dying should rightly be proud of. This is as good as it gets. No question….

Words by Steve Howe

Thanks to Lisa at Hold Tight PR for the promo. Mysterium Tremendum is available to buy now on CD/DD/Vinyl via eOne.

Links:

Facebook | BandCamp