Lago is finally back.
Formed in 2010, the band has kept a low profile, releasing EPs, demos, split records, and even two full-length albums before fading from the spotlight. A single was released in 2024, then Cole Jacobsen (guitar/vocals, Fluids), Garrett Thomas (bass/vocals), Gus Barr (guitar, Detritus, Helldemon), and Brian Miller (drums, Detritus, Gravecarver) signed with Everlasting Spew Records, the label releasing their third album, Vigil.
From the very first seconds of Behold, Ruin, the opening track, it’s clear the band means business: the sound is massive, whether in the ferocious instrumentation or the beastly vocals, these four guys are united in their determination to break our necks, by any means necessary! We also hear plenty of dissonant leads between bursts of sonic stomping, then Fodder takes over to hammer us in turn, offering ever more shrill harmonics to accompany the relentless assault and its sickening screams. Oppression and heaviness go hand in hand, just as on Procession Into Slaughter, which follows suit and exposes us to its aggressive darkness, with a touch of variety in the solo that remains tortured but allows the blast beat to plunge us back into the thick tones. The band barely gives us a moment to catch our breath before launching into Initiation Rite, where we find ourselves once again swept up in that opaque, suffocating wave where riffs and double-kick run wild to welcome the cavernous growls, along with that irritating touch of the guitars toward the end before In a House of Ill Repute comes along to hypnotize us in turn. Unsurprisingly, the rhythm section operates in the same way as on the previous tracks, though with a very slight lull during the two slightly more melodic solos, as well as in the vocals before the end, which assault us before plunging us into Kingdom Without Pulse. The musicians prove even more aggressive than before, even feigning a few softer passages before revving up the machine in an even more suffocating manner with more complex patterns, only to be hammered one last time by The Land Was a Desert, while the harmonics lacerate our eardrums, already battered by the previous assaults.
Although its roots are perfectly recognizable to regulars of the American scene, Lago doesn’t simply copy its predecessors, offering with Vigil its own sonic oppression through constantly massive riffs.
90/100