Lament
Visions and a Giant of Nebula

This album has a great cover art, that is what I thought when preparing the website for this review page. In a way it is fitting for the music we hear, but that is not as great as the cover art. The project Lament is from Indonesian artist Ryo and it is said in the press material that the album Visions and a Giant of Nebula was written in adoration of Alcest's music – so, I guess it is pretty easy to imagine what the biggest inspirations for this album might be.

Blackgaze or post-black are genre descriptions given in the press material, and it is probably correct, I think sludge can also be used for this kind of black-/doom metal inspired atmospheric music. Pretty slow, the vocals are mostly slow growls or grunts with some clean vocals, perhaps for variety, the music can appear pretty static at first glance. But it is well-produced, atmospheric, and with a depth you may need to replay the album to notice. As this is fit for a vinyl the playing time also seems very sensible with a little bit over the forty-minute mark, longer probably would have made it appear pretty slow and a bit dull.

Strange title, good looking cover, dreamy music, this album has many things and most of them are good – I like it. Still, adoring and being so obviously influenced by another band is somewhat limiting to creativity and this album lacks that little extra edge that comes from originality or excellent songs. So, it might more be a solid effort than a great effort, but it is a fine album to play like this; in the background when writing a review about it.

If genre descriptions I have used appeals to you, then it is a good album to have a closer look at, as the chances are good that you will like it. It may have a pretty wide appeal and should be considered by a wider audience as well, even if it is just for the lovely artwork, I would have loved a vinyl copy of this one in my collection. And with that I can conclude this year’s reviewing by stating that this Lament project is very interesting and Visions and a Giant of Nebula is a fine album.

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