From San Francisco comes Lotus Thief, a doom/space rock/ambient duo who find themselves on the ever capable Svart Records roster, and seeing as how unusual this band is, it's the perfect home for them. Rervm is the bands debut, and it's a wildly exploratory collection of music, at times even quite puzzling. The duo is comprised of Bezaelith and Otrebor, and both also play in Botanist, but Lotus Thief is meant to be looked at and treated as a completely separate entity. Labeling themselves 'text metal', Lotus Thief are looking to 'pass along the knowledge of superlative ancient texts' with their lyrics, and this debut as actually a 'translation-based retelling of
De Rerum Natura (or On the Nature of Things) by the Roman poet and philosopher Titus Lucretius Carus, 1st century BC'. Do you care? Well, it matters not if you don't choose to closely follow the story here, as the music is pretty damn impressive, as hefty doom/post rock riffing collides with Hawkwind styled synth passages and haunting female vocals for a sound that is quite unique. "Miseras" has a heavy Hawkwind influence, with the repetitive rhythms and driving riffs laying the foundation for psychedelic/space rock synth explorations and ethereal vocals, while ambient colors abound in the semi-floating, semi-hard rocking "Discere Credas". The mysterious "Lvx" features some beautiful, yet chilling vocals, with layer upon layer of keyboards and slow, heavy riffing, while harsh, almost black metal styled rasps show up on the exciting "Discordia", a tune that also features some blistering lead guitar work. "Aeternvm" however gets my vote as the strongest piece here, an ominous, doomy slice of adventurous space rock, with some surprising blast beats thrown in for good measure.
If all this sounds rather weird, well, it kind of is, but that's the appeal here. At times the pacing of the album is rather 'samey', but there's enough uniqueness going on to recommend Rervm rather highly. Ethereal female vocals+space rock synths+crushing metal guitar+ambient soundscapes=a pretty cool debut.
Track Listing
1) Aeternvm
2) Miseras
3) Discere Credas
4) Lvx
5) Discordia
6) Mortalis
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