Back in 2000,  along with Trauma, Lost Soul were super close to being mentioned with the same breath as Vader, Yattering, Behemoth and the then new Decapitated as Polish death metal elite. 2000s Scream of the Mourning Star was released on the US on the mighty Relapse, 2002s Ubermensch and 2005s Chaostream (For the record, “Godstate” is still an amazing death metal tune) were universally acclaimed. But after 2009s Immerse in Infinity, the band has been dark.

Well, founder Jacek Grecki, after getting a new line up for Immerse in Infinity has yet another line up 6 years later and has released arguably one of 2015s best death  metal albums. The album sub title, The New Beginning is very apt as Grecki appears to have reinvented Lost Soul as a far more epic and symphonically laced tech death metal band that will appeal to The Monolith Deathcult (namely Truimvirate) and Fleshgod Apocalypse.

While Grecki flirted with spacey atmospherics and ambiance on Immerse in Infinity,  Atlantis goes the other direction going for full on choirs and orchestration. It’s not a continual, bombastic element like Fleshgod Apocalypse but certainly like say Sarpanitum or Scrambled Defuncts, a very major part of all the songs. And with the Atlantean concept driving the album, it’s all very fitting and results in a truly epic death metal album.

From the opening choir and vortex of 9 minute opener “Hypothelemus”, it’s clear Lost Soul is still rooted in Polish paradigms, so tight, authoritative technical death metal, with hints of Nile erupting amid the full on choirs, hefty rumbles and dramatic orchestration. And so the template is laid for the next, exhaustive but rewarding 51 minutes. Thankfully though the next two songs “Aqueous Ammonia” and “Ravines of Rapture” are a little shorter, if interchangeable in their delivery of fast n furious tech death metal, though the latter a little more restraint by way of some spoken word and choral segues.

“Unicornis” finally offers a bit of respite with a little more choppy, stop start riffs and some nice dual male/female choirs  and some very cool monkish grunts and chants, making one of my favorite tracks from the album. After an intense opening half, “The Next Generation” delivers the album’s first ‘slow song’ with militant marches and stern lurches that epitomize Polish death metal.

“False Testimony” although the album’s shortest track at a shade over two minutes, but delivers some great blackened melodies while “Frozen Volcano” is a track that most imbues Fleshgod’s blasting bombastic overtures. But the album isn’t all just bluster, there is some very nice lead solo work as displayed on the aforementioned track as well as the closing title track.

The digipack version of this album comes with 3 bonus tracks; “Red Giant”, “Sonidos del Apocalipsis”, and “Supernovae”, which while lacking the Atlantis theme, blend right in with the album, especially in the lead guitar department.  So that’s three songs added to an already great album, that’s the complete package and one of the best of the year.

[Visit the band's website]

---

Comments