“From the Scratch”: As Light Dies Reveals Spellbinding Avant-Garde Metal (Lyric Video Premiere)

Progressive in more than the technical sense of the word, Spanish extreme metal experimenters As Light Dies' upcoming album The Laniakea Architecture - Volume II is a dazzling example of progressive metal that breaks out of predefined genre expectations, wielding avant-garde black metal and progressive heavy metal as tools to create a dramatic, cinematic album. Black metal is often not the primary focus and serves more as an ominous undercurrent to enhance the spectacle--the album draws strength from its willingness to completely shift tone with almost no notice, but always draws from a wellspring of darkness. On "From the Scratch," which we're premiering below, strings and an eccentric cast of vocal deliveries -- snarled, shouted, and sung -- take charge, though the mesmerizing mixture of progressive metal underneath is noteworthy in itself. As Light Dies find a balance between mournful and malicious on "From the Scratch" that only intensifies as the track progresses.

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Interestingly, this single track reveals almost nothing about the full album - there simply isn't another track that sounds like it. "From the Scratch" is more like a single chapter in an intriguing novel, never to be reiterated but instead built upon.

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The Laniakea Architecture - Volume II releases March 9th via Darkwoods.