Lazarus Blackstar - Funeral Voyeur - 19.11.07

Continuing the ghastly and claustrophobic nightmarish themes from 2005’s ‘Revelations’, Lazarus Blackstar again succeed in dragging you kicking and screaming back down into their beautifully abominable sludge/doom quagmire.

We should know what to expect from these guys by now and they don’t disappoint, delivering seven epic cacophonous tunes with which to torture you, awash with all manner of atmospherics to enhance the shit-scary experience, ‘Make Believe Master’ sounding like the audio track from a gore-fest slasher flick.

Paul Catten’s right on form, his harrowing screams sounding so angry and desperate that it’s easy to imagine him exploding, imploding, or spontaneously combusting. Whether these results are anything to do with the legendary frontman ending up on a life-support machine during the recording is certainly debatable, although one could surmise that this record may well have turned out pretty similar regardless.

‘Funeral Voyeur’ is not your average metal album; it’s a suicidal and discordant din of bowel-quivering intensity, but delivered with such impassioned honesty that all you can do is give in to the horror and admire one of the most monstrous albums of the year.


Verdict :

JIM BURT