Vinyl Review

APES - Lightless

On the platter today is yet another Canadian extreme metal group. This time it is APES, blackened hardcore coming to us from none other than Montreal, QC; the Canadian capital of extreme metal (BC does okay, but let's face the facts here). Yes, I am making it a point to cover a bunch of lesser-known Canadian metal acts first, mostly just because I like them and want to write about things I enjoy. I could have held on to them until I was better at this and do them real justice, but I've never been good at waiting.

I'm also going to try something a bit new with this review: I'm going to talk about the vinyl itself and it's packaging a little bit more in this and future reviews, and talk a little about what I like or dislike about that aspect of the record separate from the album contained therein.

Lightless is APES debut record as far as I can tell, they seem to have a couple of shorter EPs on cassette tapes floating around but this is their first recording on a label. It is a solid but short foray into some thoroughly blackened hardcore, the combination at times feeling a touch like grindcore. Especially on the first track, where after a noisy, ambient-like introduction they kick it off guns blazing with some blast beats and fast picking accompanied by aggressive harsh vocals.

These blasting rhythms give way to groovier, chugging riffs throughout the album as they trade-off in different patterns on different songs. The blackened aspects of the music showing plain on it's face with blast beats and tremolo picking appearing throughout. Also woven into the cloth are slower, moodier, more atmospheric, almost doomy passages with moaning guitars, or slow chunky riffs (or both). These passages also carry the blackened influence by often employing the beloved atmospheric black metal technique of wailing tremolo picked guitar played over slow, crushingly heavy rhythms, *non-ironic chef finger kiss motion goes here*.

As if that weren't enough, these guys decided to also incorporate some very slight, very simple, noise elements to the album. These take the form of some ambient-like static-y interludes between some of the tracks, notably at the end of the first side and before the final song. While not simply just white-noise, these segments have a slightly naturalistic nature to them, like wind or running water. The vocals on the album are solid, vicious and harsh as expected. They are somewhat harsher than the usual hardcore shout, with more of a death-metal vocal feel to them. The only clean vocals on the record are a small section in the first song on side B, which sound eerily like the late David Gold, of Woods of Ypres.

As a whole the overall ferocity of the album diminishes as it goes into the back half. There are still moments of intense fury and furious intensity all the way to the end (the final song has a great section of pure black metal), but in general the blasting rhythms are reined in for the home stretch.

I enjoy this album quite a bit. It is short but I think it shows great promise in the blending of a variety of extreme metal styles to create something cool and well worth listening to. I definitely recommend checking these guys out, and I'll certainly be keeping an eye out for their tour schedule.

Recommended for

Fans of black metal and hardcore
People looking for new extreme metal

If you like your black metal with more modern recording techniques

The Vinyl

This is a pretty cool record, the vinyl is transparent florescent orange which is neat, gives it some personality. This doesn't seem to reduce the quality at all, while it's not the heaviest weight; it's fine and the sound quality is solid. It came in a good quality white paper sleeve, with a nice, heavy weight, single page insert; credits on one side, lyrics on the other. The cover is very nice, a good quality heavy-duty material with a bit of texture to it. The record in the sleeve and the insert all fit nicely into the cover with no fuss, no fighting, and no forcing, which is great. 

My only gripe with this record is one that I see on an all too regular basis: there is nothing on this record or it's packaging informing the owner that this record is to be played at 45rpm. It's not anywhere on the record itself, it's not on the cover anywhere, and it's not on the insert. I know it's not too difficult to determine if you've got it on the wrong speed by listening to it, but with music this intense and distorted it can be hard to tell. At least this record clearly denotes which side of the record is which...

Size: 12"

Speed: 45 rpm

Colour: transparent florescent orange

Weight: medium

Labels: L'Oeil Du Tigre, Northern Sound Records, D7i Records, Doomsday Machine Records

Limited Edition to 100 copies in this colour

Good sound quality