AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): LEFT EYE PERSPECTIVE — “CONUNDRUM”

Sometimes comparisons of one band’s music to the music of other better-known bands works pretty well. Other times you scratch your head or vigorously shake it — what the hell was that writer thinking?

But in the case of the Belgian band Left Eye Perspective, their label Argonauta Records hit the nail on the head: The band’s debut album Conundrum really does sound like someone gene-spliced Mastodon, Gojira, Baroness, and The Ocean.

Or to frame the matter differently, their music proves to be a highly contagious alchemy of sludge, stoner rock, progressive metal, and grunge. Adventurously executed with a lot of instrumental and vocal flair, it brings powerhouse grooves, flights of head-spinning elaboration, mood-moving atmospheres, and plentiful doses of lysergic acid diethylamide.

You’ll see for yourselves what we’re getting at, because today we’ve got a full stream of this magnetic album on the eve of its release.

Left Eye Perspective paved the way toward the release of Conundrum with two video singles, “Arrivals” and “Breathcatcher“, which also happen to be the two songs that open the album. They make for a formidable one-two punch, while also showing the key building blocks for the band’s viscerally compulsive sound.

“Arrivals” arrived with a well-made video that gives us a good view of the band throwing themselves into the song in the midst of a broad chilly field, interspersed with scenes of frontman Kristof running toward, or away, from something.

The song is as infectious as covid at its peak, and almost as harrowing as the pandemic running amok. The band slug damned hard, with drummer Tony battering with power and bassist Jelle delivering a bowel-loosening punch. Kristof howls like a cornered lion while he and lead guitarist Kim uncage riffs that slash and moan, skitter and swirl. Altogether they create a bruising and bleak sensation.

But more facets of the music emerge as the song charges ahead like a bull elephant that’s found its groove. The bass work proves to be nimble as well as brutish. The guitars warp, whine, and whirl, with hints of psychedelia that become more than hints when Kim‘s yowling solo arrives, and Kristof proves he can sing and soar as well as snarl enraged. A kind of exultant delirium takes over, though the song ends mean and mauling.

It’s very easy to get stuck on that song, but it’s easy to get stuck on “Breathcatcher” too. The band are inside for this video, hoods down because it might be warmer. The drumming will still rattle your skull, and well-muscled punches will still be thrown, but the song is more sinister and maybe a bit more narcotic than “Arrivals“.

Kristof‘s vocals might be even more impressive this time, because from the start he so adeptly straddles a line between singing and using his voice to claw, moving seamlessly between seduction and predation. And like “Arrivals“, the song brings change, as Tony spurs the music into a gallop and the riffing pulses. Along with Kristof‘s singing, the music also soars, though those heights bring moods of melancholy as well as exhilaration.

On top of all that, the three string-benders engage in bouts of nimble interplay, which the evenness of the mix enhances, but this song also ends in dark and intense fashion, with Kristof again sounding like the lion about to fight to the death.

Don’t worry — we’re not going to continue spilling out words on a track-by-track basis. You’ll know from those first two songs whether Conundrum is likely to be your kind of thing, but you should also know that six more bracing adventures lie ahead — six more chances to get slugged, to get gripped by riveting drum fills and mercurial bass maneuvers, to get your head spun and your moods moved, to experience the ranging vocal variations.

You’ll also encounter moments when the band indulge their proggier proclivities in the midst of their hammering progressions and trippy, off-planet fretwork whirligigs. Along the way things get very grim and very glorious, daunting and dreamlike, intriguingly intricate and traumatically brutish. Wonderfully, the band never run out of hooks either.

We’ll leave you with the band’s own comments about the album:

“The conundrum of life: life and loss, love and to be loved, or following the mind and the heart. We are all challenged by the unexpected and looking for the silver lining. On this record, we went to the edge to face our personal quandaries, because for us, as a band, music is the healing force that allows us to be the best version of ourselves. To pull this off, we traversed the limits of our trademark sound: riffing hard and fast in a controlled way and exploring the endless boundaries of progressive sludge rhythms until that hell of a punch drags you into that overwhelming universe of crushing grooves.”

For more info about how to get the album, check the links below:

ARGONAUTA:
https://bit.ly/LefEyePerspective
https://argonautarecords.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/ArgonautaRecords

LEFT EYE PERSPECTIVE:
https://lefteyeperspective.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/lefteyeperspective