Lifelover – Konkurs (2010)

The ever so interesting Prophecy Productions are re-releasing this 2010 one of the most interesting and deranged albums in the last couple of years: Lifelover’s “Konkurs”. Featuring a wide palette of influences ranging from Depressive Black Metal, Ambient, Gothic Metal, Post-Rock, Shoegaze, and everything in between, the band created one of the masterpieces of Experimental music and now we get to have it re-issued and hopefully can reach a bigger audience.

With the fourteen tracks presented in “Konkurs”, the band has managed to create a hauntingly majestic release that transcends the barriers of musical genres and human emotions. The overall bleak and depressive atmosphere around “Konkurs” is top notch and only bands like Lantlôs and Svarti Loghin can ever come close to it. Be it the combination of genres, or the emotional vocals, it’s left to the listener to discover how Lifelover will affect their psyche with this release.

Quickly weaving out the non-believers with the straight forward “Shallow”, Lifelover deliver a very solid Depressive Black Metal assault in what it’s probably one of the very few ‘straight forward’ songs of the album. The mournful screams and creepy simple keyboards were enough to grab our attention and continue listening to this album. The band goes into an even more depressing tune with “Mental Central Dialog”, featuring clean vocals and a very nice melody that combines powerful guitar work, creepy keyboards and very slow-paced drums.

Through each track of “Konkurs” the band will take you into a dark journey, while most tracks are different in nature, they all maintain the same bleak atmosphere that will have you hooked since minute one of this album. Other songs like “Konvulsion” will offer you a beam of light out of this darkness, but it will quickly crush it and draw you deeper into the pit created by the albums atmosphere.

In general, the guitar work is top notch since it creates around 40% of the atmosphere of “Konkurs”, the textures created by different distortions are very interesting and disarming. The drumming stays in the background very nicely to only come at you with full force during certain chaotic movements of this album. The mixture of clean, harsh vocals and samples is amazingly done in order to create a very cohesive creepy experience in “Konkurs”.

Truly genius? Work of madness? one thing is for sure: “Konkurs” will be one of those albums that you will never forget. So be ready to catch this re-release once it comes out late Novembers, since this album is essential in every true music lover’s collection. Be sure to expect the unexpected with this release.

Release: November 29th, 2010

Country: Sweden