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Band: Lithos Sarcophagos
Album title: DeadEnd [EP]
Release date: 26 February 2015
Label: Self-Released
Tracklist:
01. End Of Time
02. The Lost Tribe
03. The Guidestones
04. DeadEnd
The newest wave of gothic rock movement has another name to be strongly considered as one of the possible strongest acts in the near future. Swedish one man project born in 2013, Lithos Sarcophagos, a brainchild of ex-Soulgrinder and Madness Of The Night member Daniel Dante, and those of you who follow our website must be familiar with the name and music. DeadEnd is already the second EP for this newcommer after the dark and intricate Myself which saw the light of the day in January last year, and shows a small step forward for Lithos Sarcophagos. Those of you who know Dante's previous work in gothic metal/rock band Soulgrinder and their full-lenght Enter from 1998 will find some similarities, but as well there's that specific gothic rock freshness that connects it with his most recent band (duo) Madness Of The Night. Lithos Sarcophagos with this new effort deserve your absolute attention dear fans of everything gothic, dark and yet heavy.
DeadEnd is like said a step forward regarding anything Dante did or was involved before, ok, maybe in the same line with Madness Of The Night, where he's responsible for all the instruments, and the only for now album Asgarda kept me hooked for quite some time when released, but yet this EP shows an imense talent and artistic streak for this kind of music. The new EP consists of four distinguishable gothic rock tracks with several variations, great production (much better than on the debut EP), strong compositions, with more fluid yet abrasive and hypnotic vibe. It opens up with the groovy and pulsating "End Of Time", a strong, in your face thrown gothic rock masterpiece with lots of raw punk energy and enough smooth melody that hypnotizes at the very first listen. Just listen to massive driving guitar riffs, simple but effective drum kicks, vibrating bass lines and gloomy synth touches that so vividly replenish the whole spectrum of sounds. Dante's voice is top-notch, dark, powerful, deep, dynamic, it cuts into the guts of the listener like a sharp knife, that's best heard in the hypnotic and vocally versatile "The Lost Tribe", where almost tribalistic, slowly driven psychotic rhythmic line takes you with the flow into the very origin of everything dark in music. The next one, "The Guidestones", is another nicely building up upbeat post-punk/gothic rock hymn with that typical 80s/early 90s gothic/new wave guitar line, pretty much in the vein of the most energetic The Sisters Of Mercy from Vision Thing, even the vocals here and there remind to the Andrew's ones. Yet you'll find some tiny elements that are in a way more typical for doom metal or even black metal to say so, but it's evident that this time Daniel focuses much more on coherency of sounds than on the debut EP. The last one is the title track, doomy, full of gloom, almost apocalyptic darkwave piece. It mesmerizes with use of decadent keys, soul-tearing slow vibe and evokes up such killer depths with those haunting vocals preaching and asking questions about the end of humankind.
Lithos Sarcophagos did an EP that is at the same time catchy, it has depth, it holds lyrical communicativeness, and even if it's self produced it's done more than enough professionally, the only thing that could be done better are sometimes to artificially sounding drum beats. DeadEnd smells of bleakness, annihilation and destruction, yet it offers a lot of freshness because of use of several interesting elements, let it be vintage or more contemporary ones that so well converge one with another. Daniel achived an impactful, still in a way unpretentious sound that is at the same time heavy, dark, emotive, yet so captivating and sinister, almost an evil delicacy for every fan of gothic rock and darkwave. All I can say is that I can't wait for a full-lenght and I hope that we'll witness it soon enough. A must for every fan of guitar driven dark music out there!
Review written by: T.V.
Rating: 8,5/10
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