I'm not totally sure if the Metal/Hard Rawk thread isn't the more appropriate place to post this, but I figure that my fellow metal heads appreciate as wide a range of genres as I do, so I'll just leave this here.
I recently found out that
Lake of Tears have released a new album called
Ominous after a 10 year hiatus. There's always been something special about the band, and this new record is no exception. It's a bleak and dark album. If you listen to any of its songs (bar maybe the bonus track) individually, they appear fragmented and strange, but if played in context, they create a maelstrom that drags you in.
The album made me re-visit their back-catalogue, too. Here's my little retrospective:
Greater Art (1994): A debut of a band very much in search of itself. Single tracks like Under the Crescent allow for a glimpse of what's to come, but overall, this album is largely forgettable. Skip this if you're not already into the band.
Headstones (1995): With this album the band really hit their stride, establishing their unique brand of simplistic, yet highly effective, songwriting. With maybe the exception of the overly-long last track, the album is all killer and offers a wide range of styles and moods, from the magnificent
title track to the energetic
Burn, Fire, Burn.
A Crimson Cosmos (1997): A fantastic follow-up. The band introduces some hippie-esque new elements into their sound that work surprisingly well and push some of the songs almost into Pink Floyd territory. The aptly named
Cosmic Weed is probably the song that sums up the album best.
Forever Autumn (1999): Probably my favorite LoT album. The hippie stuff is dialed down and makes room for full-on melancholy. Singling out certain songs doesn't make a lot of sense, as they all feel like parts of a bigger opus.
The Neonai (2002): This album only came to be to fulfill the contract with their label that forced them to deliver one last record. As a result, the songs vary wildly. The quality is up there, though, and the album has some real standout tracks like the intriguing
Nathalie and the Fireflies.
Black Brick Road (2004): A great reunion album that has all the qualities of the earlier records. The opener
The Greymen sets the tone perfectly.
Moons and Mushrooms (2007): A weird album with a bit of a punk-y attitude that, sadly, suffers from a less than stellar sound production.
Illwill (2011): A complete change in style that only makes sense retrospectively, now that
Ominous kind of marries it with
Forever Autum.
Illwill is a ghastly and desperate album full of rage and despair, spiked with mild Black Metal influences, even. A total outlier, but fascinating nevertheless.