Lake of Blood Release “As Time and Tide Erodes Stone”
The face of American black metal has changed. A new movement borne of scorched earth and concrete rather than faraway ice and snow has taken hold, and alongside like-minded free spirits Wolves in the Throne Room, Agalloch, and Panopticon, Californian horde Lake of Blood are leading the charge. Heavily atmospheric, viciously intense, and dedicated to the bone, this young quintet’s aggressive, dissonant take on black metal weaves together the genre’s puritanical roots with elements of doom, thrash, folk, and startling moments of clarity. The two tracks contained within As Time and Tide Erodes Stone are epic in far more than length; these songs are sagas, odes to a dying world and an uncertain future. UK label Human Jigsaw recognized the burning potential within Lake of Blood’s sprawling compositions, and unleashed their debut full-length. With a tour with brothers in arms Vestiges drawing close and new material already being written, Lake of Blood’s relentless march to glory has only begun.
In the summer of 2007, five individuals collected in southern Los Angeles, California with the intention of creating raw, aggressive black metal. This collaboration of minds, now known as Lake of Blood consummated its existence with few, select live performances before entering the studio in January 2008 to begin the first recording. Heed the Primal Calling, the debut EP, released in July 2008 on Milkweed Records, is composed of four songs, woven together through a concept of a man awakening, without identity or companion, in a environment without evidence of modern man’s destructive footprint, to face existence and survive as part of the natural order. Heed the Primal Calling was quickly followed in 2009, with a split CD release, collaborating with Kentucky-based anarcho black metal project, Panopticon. The split, containing one new track, “Eternal in my Domain” and two live cuts from HTPC, was released through Lundr Records, owned and operated by the sole member of Panopticon, A. 2010 was a year of adversity and accomplishment. The recording of the impending full length release, As Time and Tide Erodes Stone, transpired in arduously long sessions, in the pouring rain of January. Following the recording, internal tensions in the group increased, leading to the departure of two members. Determined not to allow the death of the group and to avoid any halt in productivity, the void within the body of the band was not only filled but over flowing. A metamorphosis of great advancement occurred. The reformation gave birth to a stronger, far more homogeneous organism. The release of As Time and Tide Erodes Stone marked the beginning of the new assemblage.
Guitarist Eric Netto explained the band’s message thusly: “We’re a socially conscious band and our lyrics and music reflect and express our overall distrust and disgust for the modern world. We use the band as a vessel to help express this with as much aggression as possible to help represent how we see the “modern world” – as chaos. We definitely take a more natural approach at black metal without the heavy corpse paint, leather, and bullet belts simply because we already noticed that a handful bands within black metal have that taken care of. We want the music to do the talking, and keep our images as far away from the emotions we’re trying to express while we play as possible. We embrace misanthropy but also recognize the compassion that it can create with new ideas and new ways to look at the world and everything/one else around you.”
Links:
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