Lahmia
Forget Every Sunrise
7.5
Forget Every Sunrise is the fourth Italian death(ish) metal EP I’ve reviewed in the last few months—alongside the industrial/death of Humangled, the death/thrash of Catalepsis, and the trad-death of Murder Therapy. With their mixture of the epic, the melodic and the melancholy, Lahmia stands head and shoulders above even the best of those competitors.
These five songs are rooted in simple melodic death metal, with some dark metal touches that clearly stem from the band’s previous efforts in goth-tinged thrash. (Or was it thrash-tinged goth?) Album opener "Nightfall" runs through a melodic/martial intro section, driving tremolo-picked riffs and an acoustic breakdown beneath alternating raspy growls and baritone clean vocals plying an almost-folky melody. Moments here bring to mind the folky brilliance of something like an Amorphis, whilst others bring to mind the morose lamentations of vintage mopers like Paradise Lost, so there’s a definite host of killer influences on hand. Each of the songs is good enough, but "Grinding Dreams" is my personal favorite. The production is top-notch, and the arrangements are such that the riffs have a chance to breathe, to create the mood without tripping over one another. The guitar leads are tasty, and overall the musicianship is solid, if not particularly flashy aside from the solos.
Forget Every Sunrise is just a demo, just a small sampler—only five songs, as I mentioned—so it’s naturally but a taste of what Lahmia could do. I haven’t heard their previous MCD release, 2005’s Eternal Memories, but based solely upon these five tunes, I’m impressed and very interested to see what happens with these guys. I wouldn’t be surprised to see them signed somewhere soon. A solid EP from a band to keep an eye on, Forget Every Sunrise is recommended for fans of the dark and the majestic.
