“Aliencore” eh? That’s what the band has jokingly called their deathcore/death metal style, and after listening a few times it actually does seem to fit (and of course everyone knows we needed another sub-genre in the metal world). If you took Beneath the Massacre and Obscura and mixed them together with every Atari game ever made (you young people might need to do some research on the interwebz if you don’t know what an Atari is), you would come out with the new LP from Rings of Saturn. It’s a twisting, turning, beeping ball of chaos.
From the press notes: Lugal Ki En is a conceptual release based on a story in which the Aliens wage war on the angels and demons of the universe after having conquered humanity — the album title translated from ancient Sumerian cuneiform to mean “King Of The Earthlings, Lord Of The Cosmic World”. Commments guitarist Lucas Mann: The concept of the album in a nutshell is that long after the Aliens conquer humanity, they evolve to a point where they transcend space, time and reality to take their conquest into the realm of the gods where they wage war on angels and demons.
So there you have it, and again after listening to the album they truly have managed to take that concept and convey it musically. This is mainly done by the pinched harmonics and very high tone, almost beeping guitar riffs (if someone can please explain how this done feel free to do so, as I admit I’m pretty clueless). It’s this main motif that gives Lugal Ki En its ambiance and uniqueness.
The vocals are a dual growl-scream, and of course the drumming is overly clicky and sounding almost programmed (the drumming and the guitar matching are so close and so insane I must say I would need to hear these guys pull this off live before I would be convinced there wasn’t a little Pro Tools/studio magic going on here). The aforementioned riffs are thrown around like candy, but they do mix up the tempos at times, so it’s not all a speedfest (though it seems that way at times). “Natural Selection” sees the band slow down just a bit and get into kind of a djenty groove, and “Godless Times” shows they’re more than capable of pulling off the much loved breakdowns.
Be that as it may the style as a whole does get a little old, even for a deathcore fan like me, and I feel it is one of the weaker release on what is one of my favorite labels – Unique Leader. The entire album runs just under 45 minutes, which I feel was about 10-15 minutes too long. They could have tightened the album up a bit, but if you’re looking for something a little different you can do much worse that this one.
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Im loving these guys- i hadnt quite yet wrapped my head around Dingur (my first intro to the band), and then this drop. sounds like an ultron orgy
on Oct 31st, 2014 at 07:16I love how bands of this magnitude drop albums almost every year. And yeah, I also haven’t got my head around Dingir, and here comes more. Thanks ROS for keeping my brain fresh and diluted from “aliencore” metal equations.
on Oct 31st, 2014 at 15:59sounding almost programmed…Hahahahahahaaaa
on Oct 31st, 2014 at 20:50Sorry but there isn’t any Obscura sanity here at all. This is screechy obnoxious DeathCore to the core. Any band i can think of close is more interesting than this. Especially Gorod and Obscura.
on Oct 31st, 2014 at 20:53Ancient Sumerian…really!?? … jeeez.
on Oct 31st, 2014 at 20:56Ancient Sumerian. I can’t think of anything more GEEK than this shit.
Ancient Sumerian. Holy Fuck, that really takes some bonghits!
on Oct 31st, 2014 at 20:57Obscura is a terribly boring band.these guys kill them.
on Nov 2nd, 2014 at 21:04Anyone seen them live? I read some posts on Metal Sucks (what a stupid name for a Metal website, by the way) accusing them of studio/programming trickery and not being able of pulling this off live.
on Nov 3rd, 2014 at 19:14I don´t believe Unique Leader would release a Death Metal “Milli Vanilli” but I would like to hear some input from people who has seen them play live.
There’s a bunch of live videos on youtube. Back in the day they were indeed caught playing to a backing track of their entire performance, vocals and all, according to bands I know that have toured with them. Now they play to a backing track of bass guitar and occasional other guitar tracks. I personally think it’s weak, and the “fake” claims and his attitude regarding it apparently made that Lucas dude the most hated guy in “metal” right now, and even though the guy can play circles around me I just don’t care for anything the band does really. For their age they are incredibly good musicians, I will say that.
on Nov 4th, 2014 at 14:51Yes they are damn good musicians. And just to be clear, I am accusing the band of nothing as I have no proof, I’m just saying that based off of their album I have a very healthy dose of skepticism until I was to see them pull this off in person.
on Nov 4th, 2014 at 14:58The albums are definitely recorded at a slower tempo and flattened with compression to the point that every note is a downpick to make it sound inhumanly percussive. The guys can play it live, but not with the dynamics-free style that makes their records sound deliberately robotic and “alien.”
on Nov 4th, 2014 at 17:10and as with the other bands in the genre like Veil of Maya and such, the drums are most likely not played by a human and are programmed in Superior Drummer. You’ll see them still perform it live, but once again the band on a recorded format is not trying to sound organic.
on Nov 4th, 2014 at 17:13Still weak, IMO.
I personally think everyone who bad mouthed ‘Rings of Saturn’ are retards, since you clearly cannot appreciate good music and pure talent. Even if their studio recorded tracks are altered, the fact that they are able to play it live and produce good music is impressive. Shouldn’t that be enough, you guys should learn to give credit where credit is due.
on Sep 7th, 2015 at 11:40Yeah! ANYONE critical of this album is a RETARD! (says the lonely troll on the nearly year old review)
on Sep 7th, 2015 at 14:19