75%
Lamort—A cold godless machine (2011)
Details
Recorded between December 2010 and March 2011. Engineered by David Mays. Head on a stick recordings. Produced by David Mays and Lamort. Mastered by Martin Pullin of Eden Sound, Melbourne.
Band
- Alex Williams—Vocals
- David Mays—Guitar
- Chris McManus—Bass and backing vocals
- Reuben Stone—Keyboards and synth
- Matt Cleary—Drums
Tracks
- Cold. Godless.
- Mother of sin
- Secular conviction
- Lord of flies
Review
[Trying to play review catch-up again, so I’ll try to keep this short but sweet.]
I first listened to this four track EP from Lamort in the car. It didn’t really do it justice but I did the gist of things.
My first impression was this: it sounded like how I would imagine it would be if someone was trying to listen to a symphonic orchestra in the concert hall on the other side of a building site. While being attacked by zombies.
Lamort (from the French for ‘death’) is a symphonic black metal band from Australia. Home those other influential hard rock and metal bands such as AC/DC… and erm… that lot.
Transferring operations to my PC and things begin to sound much better than my car stereo had suggested. It’s melodic. It’s symphonic. it’s dramatic. It’s not too bad, to be honest.
Track three had me laughing in my car the other day. At about 4′ 56″ into the song Williams sings, what I first heard as, “I reach out for my shopping knife!”
“What?!” I exclaimed. “What is a shopping knife?” I imagined that the markets round his way are either far more violent than I am am used to, or far more pick your own.
“Yeah, mate! The beef’s all there, just cut off the size of slab you need. You’ll find a kni… oh! I see you’ve brought your own.”
Turns out he was singing “sharpened knife”. That makes more sense.
Despite the almost pantomine (albeit a dark, east end of London, Victorian-era Jack the Ripper-style pantomime) lyrics I rather enjoyed the drama of the final track “Lord of Flies”. It’s nothing like the novel; not as I remember it.
Conclusion
It’s symphonic black metal. It does exactly what it says on the black altar of sacrifice. And it does it was dramatic aplomb.
Despite the poor introduction, I’ve warmed to this cold godless machine. Good effort!
Review score: 75%