Savage, crunching, galloping guitars and unforgiving powerhouse drumming underlay a hellish sludge-fest of an upcoming debut record by Portland, Oregon metal band Lord Dying. The album is entitled, “Summon the Faithless,” and will be released on Relapse Records July 9th, 2013. Prepare to have your brain blasted into oblivion. Old progressive proto-metal like Black Sabbath meets the tighter, meaner thrash and death metal of latter years in a blend that’s like God’s own jackhammer.
These guys do not fool around with their conjuring up of intriguing song titles. These include: “Perverse Osmosis,” “Descend into External,” and my personal favorite, “What is Not…Is.” Clearly, though new to the professional recording business, Lord Dying is not a band of slouches in any respect, neither as musicians or song title philosophers. At first the song names made me laugh, then they got me thinking, and now I’m laughing again… but it is a laughter of acceptance, laughter like a horseman of the apocalypse riding on a sky-covering wave of fire from heaven, mace in hand, ready to show no mercy to the cowering world below.
Yes, biblical end-of-days are called to mind upon listening to “Summon the Faithless.” Also maybe knight or viking battles, or a tyrannosaurus stampede. You catch my colossal drift. Definitely not an album for the hungover or sleepy.
In spite of their mammoth, bone crunching sound, Lord Dying isn’t afraid of releasing photos of themselves standing around a Foosball table in a tiny, somewhat cluttered backyard. I respect that. Also, the upcoming album cover is pretty righteous: that wrinkly, saber-tongued skeleton demon with the hourglass gives Iron Maiden’s Eddie a run for his money in the intimidation department. I would love to see a fight between the two. I feel like Eddie would have more physical strength but the Lord Dying demon could cast some evil spell and end the bout whenever he pleased.
The album is as cold-blooded and heavy as the skull-moon on its cover. It is, to quote the band, straight from his majesty Dying’s mouth, “…an offering of pummeling riffs and all things metal…so crack a brew, bang your head and enjoy.” At the very end of the record, “What is Not…Is” disintegrates into a seemingly endless pit of noise. It’s like you’re falling into hell but it’s actually enjoyable, because somehow you’ve lucked out and been given a set of fireproof scales and wings and demon officer status, so although you’re hurtling down past jagged rock walls and into a pit of flames, it’s exactly where you want to be going.