Lykotonon doesn’t like conventional sounds.
From the United States, the band released a first demo in 2020, then Jamie Hansen (guitar/vocals, Stormkeep, Wayfarer), Shane McCarthy (bass/vocals, Stormkeep, Wayfarer), Eric van Langenhoven (guitar/keyboards, ex-Centimani) and Isaac Faulk (drums, Stormkeep, Wayfarer, Blood Incantation, ex-Centimani) announced the release of Promethean Pathology, their debut album, on Profound Lore Records in 2022.
The album opens with The Apocryphal Self, a track which lets muffled Electro sounds bring the Black/Death Metal violence, then intense vocal parts. The band skillfully places modern elements into its jerky and oppressive basis, while dissonance continues to accompany the unusual mix before Wrested From Solace unveils minimalist and soaring elements to create a contrast with the airy Black Metal roots. The rhythmic will be brought to explode again with piercing Old School elements, but the band also lets short unexpected breaks offer their jerky sound before Apeiron lets some quietness soothe us with soaring sounds. Darkness resurfaces with Psychosocratic, a chaotic composition which lets Noise influences cover an abrasive and saturated rhythmic keep weighing and haunting patterns coupled with those chaotic and modern tones to give riffs an oppressive atmosphere. Riffs suddenly stop before letting The Primal Principle revive the oppression with vocal effects, noisy sounds and other strange influences to develop a strange universe before letting some riffs surface. The sound will slowly drive us to That Which Stares In Kind which returns to raw saturation and the darkest ghostly screams, letting the dark atmosphere oppress us while incorporating some enigmatic sounds. The track is clearly the closest to Atmospheric Black/Death Metal, especially during the heavy break, but the chaotic atmosphere guides us into Seeing Silver In Shadow which starts with modern sounds before letting raw riffs crush us. The track is strange, letting all elements blend together to create an organized chaos punctuated by catchy airy breaks until the dissonant final.
If you know Lykotonon, you’ll be won over by their exceptional blend. But if you’ve never heard of the band, Promethean Pathology will surprise, strike and amaze you with its strong and diverse influences. In any case, the album remains as surprising as coherent.
85/100
