LIFELOVER – “SJUKDOM”
PROPHECY PRODUCTIONS (2011)

Metal Church - The Present Wasteland

Stockholm is a beautiful Swedish city and has also been the home of some of the most influential extreme metal bands ever to set foot on this earth, the vast majority of which adhere to the now classic Swedish Death Metal sound that we all know and love. Want names? How about Entombed, Dismember and Unleashed, to name just a few? Now you are most probably convinced, right, but what about atmospheric Metal – has this genre found a representative in the capital? Well, the last few years it has been mainly Jonas Renkse’s Katatonia who have been the flag bearers of the scene, and rightfully so, as the albums that they have created thus far in their career have been pretty outstanding. As with every scene, however, there will always be a number of young bands that will be either hungry or daring enough to try and challenge such legendary acts – one such band is the self-proclaimed avant-garde sextet Lifelover.

I was genuinely excited about the prospect of reviewing the band’s latest offering “Sjukdom”, even though I had never come across the music of this strange sounding ensemble before! How come, one might ask? Simply based on the fact that Prophecy Productions, the band’s Rhineland-based label, has been responsible for some of the most emotionally-challenging releases in recent times. So how about “Sjukdom” – did it manage to meet with my expectations? The answer is not straight forward, as for every element in this fourteen track release that I found to be bold and exciting, there was one that I found to be either uninspiring or plain disappointing! Lifelover’s music combine the harshness and eeriness of Burzum (“Filosofem” era) with the melodic prowess of Katatonia – a combination which, in some cases, produced some marvellous pieces of music and, in others, some truly basic compositions which I, for one, will be happy never to come across again in my life. Let me be more specific.

Even though the Burzumesque riffs and emotional piano tunes of the four and a half minute “Svart Galla” provided a promising start, there were signs early on that the levels of quality reached by this effort would not be extremely high. What I am referring to here is the awful drum sound (drum machine in reality) which literally plagues the album, not allowing it to reach its full potential. Another aspect of the band’s music that I found to be thoroughly annoying at times was Kim “( )” Carlsson’s screaming vocals – a lame attempt to copy those by Varg Vikernes (Burzum) and which, in compositions such as “Led By Misfortune”, “Homicidal Tendencies” and “Resignation” is doing more actual harm than good. Just as I was beginning to settle with what I had begun to consider an average/indifferent album, I became exposed to “Totus Anctus” – a four minute opus which combines the heaviness of Soulfly with some really impressive narrative style vocals and atmospheric lead guitar passages. With renewed faith, I dedicated myself to listening to the second half of the album, only to discover that the chasm between good and bad quality compositions was further widening. Of those songs that really impressed me, the one that stood out was “Bitterljuv Kakofoni” as it was the only instance in the album where I actually felt both intimidated and pleased by the intensity of the atmosphere created. It is really sad that while Lifelover are capable of creating a song of such high standards they, at the same time, are capable of creating compositions as uninspiring and annoying as “Becksvart Frustration” – a song title which is self-fulfilling!

There is nothing more annoying than seeing a band such as Lifelover, a band that really has the skill and passion required in order to achieve great things, undermining themselves in such a way. I am well aware that many fellow journalists has hailed both them and “Sjukdom” as one of the most impressive atmospheric albums in recent times but I fail to see how this is the case. There are indeed some moments of artistic greatness here and that is the reason why this album has received what I consider to be a decent rating, however, these guys will really have to step up their game if they are to survive and become strong competitors in this ruthless and over saturated thing called the music industry. Let’s see what the future holds for these fine Germans!

John Stefanis

Rating: *** (3.0/5.0)

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