Lekamen Illusion Kallet – The Second Wind (2011)

In another addition to the ‘meh’ column of this month, today we have Lekamen Illusion Kallet (LIK) and their fourth full-length release “The Second Wind”. The band has re-emerged to release a pretty standard Black Metal meets Rock and Roll release that should fly low in most people’s radars.

With over 40 minutes of bleak and depressing music, the band does one thing right: create a very desolate and dark atmosphere. The guitar tuning gives out a very raw and low-fi roar that is very effective in creating said atmosphere. Also, the slow tempo presented in these songs makes them perfect for an agonizing evening under very bad weather conditions.

Graav does a fine job handling all instruments and the very depressing vocals, but still manages to fall short from creating something to be truly remembered. The album opener “The Other Realm” sets the mood for a very emotive album, but this is as good as it gets since the rest of the songs are very similar.

With the exception of the ‘high powered’ “Death Breeder”, the remainder of the album will make you feel like you fell down in a time vortex and you are stuck listening to the same song for over 35 minutes. With shrieks here and there, you can stop falling asleep, but the overall mood of the album is too sluggish to handle.

If you like dull and repetitive Rock songs with Black Metal influences, then this is the release for you. The band seems to have stuck to a formula that might have been effective a few years ago but not anymore with the uprising of bands playing more entertaining Post-Black Metal and Shoegaze infused BM.

Release: March 28th, 2011

Country: Sweden