Luring – Malevolent Lycanthropic Heresy

After having been quite impressed by Luring’s sophomore album, and first one through Iron Bonehead Productions, I was eagerly awaiting the band’s third offering. That follow-up to ‘Triumphant Fall Of The Malignant Christ’ is now here in the form of ‘Malevolent Lycanthropic Heresy’. But where the previous album struck such a pleasing balance between the harshness of Black Metal’s essence and the seductiveness of its melody and atmosphere, this latest album seems to actually provide more context to what seems to be the musical journey envisaged by this American trio.

The benefit of having three records and listening them in succession is that the listener gets a good picture of exactly what that vision entails. In the review of ‘Triumphant Fall Of The Malignant Christ’ I already wrote about the significant shift in sound, leaving the more rudimentary and raw spirit of the debut album behind. In return we were served with a great and well-balanced atmosphere with lots of dreary melodies and excellent overall song writing. But after having heard ‘Malevolent Lycanthropic Heresy’ a good couple of times, it is now clear that the specific change in sound was not just a natural growth of a band, but rather seem to be part of a wider plan. A musical vision.

For starters, ‘Malevolent Lycanthropic Heresy’ is a record that is not easy to wrap your head around and I wouldn’t be surprised if this would turn out to be a classic transitional album that would point out an evident turning point in the band’s career.

There is enough on this new album that reminds of its predecessor, with good melodies, atmospheric elements and interesting twists and turns. The element of surprise, however, mainly lies within the emphasize of these twists and turns. And even after a good amount of spins, I am not entirely sure what to think of all these rather unorthodox experiments. Usually, I’m quite up for a band that takes a dim view of the unwritten genre rules and likes to think out of the box, but in the case of Luring’s third album, I still find myself struggling to sort out my mind about it.

Besides the usual things of a good raw-ish Black Metal record with sufficient atmospheric passages and ditto song writing, the band has indulged in (an excess of) Industrial/Martial Dark Ambient tracks that, separately from the rest of the album, would not look out of place on a Cold Meat Industry release from the 90’s. But that, in itself, is not a massively world-changing move, but the electronic (sounding) beats in several tracks do represent a substantial break from the band’s prevailing aesthetic. It is not just the drums/beats, but it is also the way they are added to the music, sometimes it feels rather off-beat and just plain awkward. For sure it gives the music a rather original character, but for now it just leaves me a bit undecided and even a little confused.

Adding those electronic elements might not have been much of an issue, were it not that those interruptions by the Martial/Dark Ambient tracks are breaking much of the album’s natural flow. So, in the end I feel that breaking with the past musical recipe is not a bad thing per se and can even be applauded, but that going in two directs at once is a bit too much for a record to still sound coherent, which is the “problem” of the album put into one single word. The lack of cohesion and a certain sense of direction makes the album feel like a loose canon on deck. Yet, because the album’s individual ideas still show the band’s impeccable sense for building tension, atmosphere and overall song writing, it reinforces my idea that with ‘Malevolent Lycanthropic Heresy’ we are dealing with a transitional album, and I would not be surprised if, with its follow-up, the pieces of the puzzle will fall much more into place.