AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: THE LAST OF LUCY — “EMPYREAL BANISHER”

The global arms race within the sphere of technical death metal proceeds apace, with many participants striving for nuclear-strength blast fronts of notes and beats moving so fast they challenge comprehension. This makes it more, not less, needful for bands operating in that sphere to do something… different… something not only comprehensible but also imaginative and, well, out of the ordinary.

Which brings us to The Last of Lucy. The last time we hosted a premiere of one of their songs (2 1/2 years ago in the run-up to release of their second album, Moksha) we described it as “an extremely vicious, often unearthly, yet undeniably captivating sonic creature”, “elaborate in its creation of menace and mayhem, and far from commonplace”. Now we all get to see what they’ve done creatively in the intervening time.

What they’ve created is a new album named Godform, which like Moksha is adorned by the artwork of Pär Olofsson, even more jaw-dropping now than before and no less-mind-bending. As you’re about to discover, that’s also true of this California band’s new music.

“Empyreal Banisher” is the song we’re presenting today in advance of Godform‘s May 17 release by Transcending Obscurity Records. It arrives with a video made by Alexander Thomas (Eternal Film Productions) — a horrifying, bload-soaked surgical (and culinary) narrative that includes characters such as The Butcher, The Plague, The Dentist, and the band in hospital garb, firing away as they await their turn on the table.

And man, they do fire away. They easily hold their own in the tech-death arms race, discharging percussive munitions and a plethora of bizarre fretwork contortions at a blistering rate of speed, punctuated by quick stops and starts that make the experience even more bamboozling.

But as forecast above, there’s more going on in the song than dazzling instrumental performances. Even fairly early on, and again later, they work in a slithering and swirling solo while musical jackhammers batter in bursts. And later still, there’s a surprising instrumental interlude in which the bass plays a lead role, a beguiling interlude that sounds both sinister and futuristic.

Along the way, they detonate catastrophic bass-drop bombs for added brutality, though the song is plenty brutal and bludgeoning in other respects too, especially in the jackhammer fest that carries the song to its conclusion.

Also along the way, Josh De La Sol howls like a madman, so vicious and crazed that it’s easy to understand why he’s in a straight-jacket for much of the video, lest he harm himself or others.

And with that, we’ll let you get your head spun and hammered hard, and to feed your hunger for blood:

LINE-UP:
Josh De La Sol – Vocals
Gad Gidon – Guitars
Derek Santistevan – Bass
Josef Hossain-Kay – Drums

Godform was mixed and mastered by Dave Otero. As usual, Transcending Obscurity will release the album in numerous formats (gatefold vinyl LP, CD, and digital) with lots of apparel and other merch featuring the extravagant cover art. They recommend it for fans of Inferi, The Faceless, Archspire, The Zenith Passage, and Godless Truth.

Find pre-order links below, along with streams of two previously released songs from the album, “Shedim Seance” and “Twin Flames“.

PRE-ORDER:
https://thelastoflucyband.bandcamp.com/album/godform
http://transcendingobscurity.aisamerch.com/
http://eu.tometal.com/

THE LAST OF LUCY:
http://facebook.com/thelastoflucyofficial