Album Review: Lotus Thief & Forlesen, Split LP
One should know immediately that the two bands involved in this split, Lotus Thief and Forlesen, are intricately connected. Lotus Thief‘s lineup has been an evolutionary process that here finds them a six-piece, but three of those six players — vocalist Beth “Bezaelith” Gladding (also bass, guitar, mandolin, synth), screamer Alex “Ascalaphus” Lindo and guitarist/synthesist Petit Albert Yeh — also make up 75 percent of Forlesen, which is completed by Sam “Maleus” Gutterman on drums. And Gutterman was in Maudlin of the Well (which begat Kayo Dot), and Gladding and Lindo were both in Botanist and Yeh has played with the piano-driven Wreche, who like both units here are also on I, Voidhanger Records.
Lotus Thief has Mohrany (Heather) on backing vocals, Romthulus (Kevin) on guitar and Sonnungr (who I would imagine was born with a different first name) on percussion alongside Gladding, Lindo and Gutterman, they and Forlesen both offer one mostly-side-consuming track around 12 minutes long — Lotus Thief‘s “In Perdition” is 11:56, Forlesen‘s “Black is the Color” checks in at 12:19 — while highlighting the similarities of mindset and the beyond-genre outreach each makes in its own direction. Not discounting anyone else’s contributions to the material, but it’s Gladding at Lotus Thief‘s conceptual core, and the band’s established methodology of adapting obscure ancient texts — “In Perdition” draws lines from the first story of Giovanni Boccaccio’s 1353 story collection The Decameron, which tells the tale of a Master Ciappelletto in suitably lofty religious tones. I don’t think you were allowed to write anything in Europe before 1700 that wasn’t about God. Ask Galileo. Or Copernicus.
But it is amid a spacious strum that Gladding sets the foundation for “In Perdition,” moving smoothly into harmony with Mohrany with an air of Americana that feels as much 16 Horsepower as all the talk of perdition and paradise put one in mind of Lingua Ignota, but at about two and a half minutes, Lotus Thief transition to a resonant melodic wash and from there burst out with soaring goth metal lead guitar (that is to say, soaring, but still sad) and a slow roll punctuated by Sonnungr‘s crash and plod. By the time another minute has passed, Lindo has arrived with the first screams and the entire context of the song has shifted, but that’s not to be unexpected considering the avant garde nature of both these bands. But the moment of post-extremity works well and when the fog clears, Lotus Thief take a moment to examine how the texture has changed in “In Perdition,” Gladding ultimately stepping forward for a next verse as the track heads toward its midpoint.
I’ll cop to a lack of familiarity with The Decameron, but the thing seems to be that Master Ciappelletto was “The worst of men,” and died without confession, was named a saint, and the point of the story seems to be he was an asshole. Fair enough. A blackened push, winding of riff, echoing of scream, charged and tense but progressive and melodic in ambience, gives over to a stately guitar solo before Gladding returns for a final verse and the fluid ending, which I don’t want to call doomgaze because it feels like an insult or a too-easy summary for such a headphone-worthy depth of layering, but at least on paper is an interpretation of the style.
It’s a comedown at the end, and it’s from there that Forlesen — who are the newer of the two bands, with two LPs out to Lotus Thief‘s three (not that it’s a contest) — pick up with the gradual forward percussive build, low rumble and vague melodic vocal of “Black is the Color,” which rises in its first four minutes to a crash-laced duet from Gladding and Lindo. A duly foreboding, brooding lumber takes hold, with charred whispers and screams far back as a hairier lead guitar accompanies strikes of piano in dramatic fashion.
And drama is for sure part of the crux for both Lotus Thief and Forlesen, the latter of whom issued a cover of Type O Negative‘s “Red Water (Christmas Mourning)” (posted here) last month in time for the holidays, and that influence can be heard in the lead guitar on “In Perdition” and “Black is the Color” as well, the latter oozing into an atmospheric slog laced with what might or might not actually be far-back screams and whispers, vague presences moving through, with grounding by the drums and piano as it turns to its most minimal point, with drum thud in open space, whispers, and crashes that feel inevitable as a next step forward on the marching progression. Yeh‘s piano is all the more resonant circa 7:45 just before Gladding and Lindo return on vocals (both clean singing), but when they do, the song has clearly hit its crescendo.
In it, Forlesen are poised enough to stand up to Lotus Thief “In Perdition,” but the backdrop against which that happens is darker, and however much both groups come across like they’re working to push their respective sounds — which are different, no matter how much they might have in common — as far into the unknown as they can, they’re still writing songs as a part of that process, it’s just what “song” means that changes, and that, as an ethic, is something to be admired. The repeated line, “We’ll be as one,” with Gladding in more of a lead spot mix-wise, caps the nodding last section of “Black is the Color,” and after all the lurch and distortion, it’s the quietly thudding drums and the melodic delivery of those lyrics that end the split, which in about 24 minutes’ time has given a fitting summation of what each of these projects is about, working on its own respective wavelength while complementary to the other.
Lotus Thief and Forlesen aren’t the first to put out a split while sharing members, and I’ll emphasize again that each has its own persona and purpose, and that those are brought to life with no less clarity than the tonal aspects or aesthetic intentions that might be common between them under a kind of progressive post-black metal/doom/this-genre-is-still-being-made-check-back-later-for-a-clever-name umbrella. By bringing the two entities together as they do here, what they’ve done is to essentially let each give a sampling of what they’re about in a way that, as neither act’s sound is particularly accessible despite being at least periodically gorgeous, allows those who might hesitate in the face of something so outsider-art, even in a heavy context, to take both on and get a preliminary understanding for what they’re about. To do so, especially for those who haven’t before, feels like a fast track to mind expansion.
Forlesen, Black Terrain (2022)
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Tags: California, Forlesen, I Voidhanger Records, Lotus Thief, Lotus Thief Forlesen Split, Oregon
