{"id":19074,"date":"2020-10-21T11:05:55","date_gmt":"2020-10-21T15:05:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southeastofheaven.com\/?p=19074"},"modified":"2022-01-06T19:47:48","modified_gmt":"2022-01-07T00:47:48","slug":"album-review-lykantropi-tales-to-be-told","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/?p=19074","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Lykantropi – Tales to Be Told"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m not even going to waste any time here.\u00a0 I\u2019m just going to come straight out and say that Swedish occult rockers Lykantropi<\/strong> is without a doubt one of the greatest bands I\u2019ve discovered in the last 20 years or so.\u00a0 In the last ten or eleven years, I have been gifted with some of the most amazing, moving, and life-changing music.\u00a0 Iron Maiden<\/strong> as a kid, the Grateful Dead<\/strong> in my 20s, and in the 2000\u2019s it was Graveyard<\/strong>, Jess and the Ancient Ones<\/strong>, and now it is Lykantropi.<\/p>\n

When I heard Lykantropi earlier this year, I knew I had stumbled upon something truly magical.\u00a0 Their debut album was constantly played followed by their sophomore release, Spirituosa<\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0 From that album, the songs \u201cVestigia\u201d and \u201cSeven Blue\u201d got played so many times that I probably will make up at least 53% of the streams on Spotify for those songs.\u00a0 Immediately, like with any other band I love this much, I became obsessed and I waited with bated breath for an announcement of a new album.<\/p>\n

On November 6th<\/sup>, Lykantropi will release their much anticipated third album, Tales to be Told<\/strong><\/em> but I have been granted the privilege of hearing the album in advance I have to say that this is without a doubt going to be my favorite album of 2020.\u00a0 Much like my other favorites Graveyard and Jess and the Ancient Ones, Lykantropi is not a band content with repeating themselves from album to album.\u00a0 Even though this is Lykantropi\u2019s third album, the songs here are a step forward without repeating themselves yet not steering far from what I consider to be their signature sound.<\/p>\n

Lykantropi teased me over the past few months trickling out a couple of singles from this album so by the time the first song \u201cComing Your Way\u201d was playing I already knew this song.\u00a0 This is no fault of the band but because I had played the fuck out of it so much upon its release, I just sat back anticipating what was to follow.\u00a0 The title track is a hard-hitting groove melded with the lush harmony vocals of singer My Shaolin, guitarist\/vocalist Martin Ostlund, and flautist Ia Oberg.\u00a0 This is the song that set up the mood for me and I let myself settle in and see where the music would take me.<\/p>\n

\u201cKom ta mi gut\u201d is the song that, in my opinion, is the best representation of what Lykantropi as a band can do.\u00a0 On this song, the band sounds as one.\u00a0 Each of its parts combined create a sonic blanket of sorts that fills me with a warmth of sorts. \u00a0The music is sparse yet there is a complexity to it that sometimes goes into progressive territory without derailing or becoming self-indulgent.\u00a0 The combined vocals of Ostlund and Shaolin nearly brought me to tears the first time I heard this song and with every listen, it is just as powerful as the first time I heard it.<\/p>\n