Alpha Lyrae: Alpha Lyrae

Alpha Lyrae would appear to be the self-titled debut from London based but Peruvian born Guido Jan, an artist who himself says this album resides in the melodic death doom realm. Now, vocally that might be true in the opening track, “Criterion�, where Genaro Alva lends a hoarse howl to proceedings, but even here musically things are less straight forward. The project was inspired by the then impending birth of Jan’s daughter back in 2020, and the thought of exactly what kind of world she had in store for her - which are indeed major events and an interesting album starting point. However, in execution things often begin to untangle in a way that makes the journey more monotone than I would suggest was intended. Throughout the six lengthy tracks, clean, introspective passages jostle with some harsher outbursts but too often the two different approaches struggle to mesh as we traverse across an album that also suffers through a mix that fails to offer the hand of help you’d hope it might.

In the end, the morose outlook and perennial introspection being offered up via “H.I.� or “October Lux� ends up being not quite one thing or the other. Is this goth doom, extreme metal or post-rock? Well, no… and well, kind of. However, for me, where things really falter is through the notion that music looking to enter any of those spheres shouldn’t be quite as forgettable as everything here turns out to be.

Alpha Lyrae is well intentioned, but in all honesty, while none of it is terrible, what I’m most struck by is the interesting artwork on the cover, but then even that doesn’t particularly connect with the music it contains.

Track Listing
1. Criterion
2. October Lux
3. Alpha Lyrae
4. Pillars Of Wisdom
5. H.I.
6. Deus In Te

Added: November 18th 2024
Reviewer: Steven Reid
Score:
Related Link: Alpha Lyrae @ bandcamp
Hits: 61
Language: english

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