"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.