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Rating:
Deicide? Off the shore! Necrophagist? No way. Nile? Almost, but we're still far off.
These "Lykathea Aflame", a band consisting of four poor Czech guys - from the republic, not the eye - who, mistreated by critics, audiences, and everything else, only survived one year, then reformed a year later - a few months ago - with a new name (Lykathé) and new lineup.
This CD is a punch right in the chest, a CD that combines that brutal death of Nile's school with some unorthodox themes. The central theme is the spiritual journey, the journey of formation, the search for spiritual well-being. The destination is a place, Lykathea, and the flame that burns it is 'Elvenefris', a sort of symbolic image of the desire for fulfillment transfigured in the growth of the individual. The music, as I said, originates from the Nile-type brutal death, enriched however with semi-ambient inserts, a very "oriental" taste - it very much recalls, in some passages, Indian religious music - and also a certain love for the progressive.
The lyrics, centered on the themes mentioned above, are sung in a voice that at times is clean, echoing, open, and airy, only to then emerge into one of the most guttural and deep growls - to define it brutal would be limiting - I've ever had the chance to hear. It's a strange album, a different, particular album. It certainly deserved a bit more attention, amidst a metal market now inflated and full of the usual old names playing it safe and the new copycat groups.
Valuing those few bands that still deserve it is a duty of those who care about their music.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Land Where Sympathy Is Air (05:50)
Revived in Lykathea, in that exhausting and
dazing embrace, discomposure entered me.
And I opened my heart and beared the yearning
and the wish buried from the light for aeons.
I felt connection and allurement that I will not withstand.
I awakened to Elvenefris and heard the calling.
The gate will be found,
the key will be forged.
My heart I will present to you being cleared
of a poisons of Lykathea that exorcise us to idleness
and condemn us to pain.
I am searching for the land where I will fall on my knees
and will be weeping for a long time.
Where my mind shall extend on the sky
and my heart shall speak the language of the trees
and open like a water-lily
by touches of morning sun...
05 To Give (03:57)
Gifts you give others - surely the same ones return to you,
therefore think how oyu present others,
since the good when you give - by that time you are presented
and if the evil being your gift - by that time you are punished.
Since the eyes watching over the life are never closing.
How much pain do you need yet?
Since the way is being shown to you
and indeed only the closed eyes do not see it.
08 Sadness and Strength (08:05)
You have pierced me, human being,
it wasn't for the first time and I believe it wasn't for the last time.
You even don't know it
but so often you are shedding my blood,
frequently I do not have the strength for you.
Then I retire into my palace veiled
in the morning vesture of apathy.
Still I haven't found inside of you
what I am looking for a long time.
Silently I just beg this wasn't phantasm...
How much more shedded blood and tears is
awaiting before my soul comes home?
The eyes of mine sow the wistful
longing on the firmament.
I will give you mercy... even I am bleeding
Mercy and sympathy... the arms of the strong and longing ones.
When I advance on my way... I'll begin to pray for you.
09 A Step Closer (07:19)
Jealousy is degrading us from divine freedom to futile slavery.
Be free and let 'em be free.
Spiritual teachers we become when giving freedom
and possibility of choice.
Show 'em freedom and you'll be followed,
it's the only way leading from the painsphere.
[Chorus:]Then we will be a step closer to home
Improvement of ourselves is an escape from inner impurity and its torments.
So because we judge others according to ourselves
when there is no impurity within us
we won't be afraid of the impurity of others...
...and fear is gone,
only beautiful harmony remains...
[Chorus:]Then we will be a step closer to home
10 An Old Man and a Child (09:10)
On the high hill sits an old man
his eyes are staring down... his mind is calm.
His sight he will soon turn ot the sky in the while
when the last page of that strange book he has finished reading.
In the distance he hears the clear and ringing laughter of a child.
He knows child well, better than its mother.
Child knows him as well,
their hearts have elected shared path.
Old man and child - old man and child.
Both they are the elements of one life
Yet their sights have never met
and won't ever meet,
as rough waters can never be the calm ones at the same time.
In that land that I was given to keep they live
their lives being teachers one to another.
Celestial orchestra will begin to play when
my mouth begins to speakto you by their joint language,
as mother speaks to her child
and then your tears shall be wiped...
...you tear-stained ones...
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