Lurker Of Chalice

Leviathan’s mastermind, Wrest, appears solo here under the somewhat non-sensical moniker Lurker of Chalice. Sounding at times gothic, at others grindcore, Lurker pushes the boundaries of black metal, even incorporating (heresy!) acoustic guitars and symphonic interludes. An overall oppressive mood seems to be more the order of the day than orthodox black metal. “Spectre as Valkerie Is” provides the best example with the chugging riffs and growling vocals giving way to a hypnotic, ambient-psychedelic trance-inducing groove (indeed!) that delights as much as it surprises. As does the My Bloody Valentine-meets-Burzum guitar drone of “Paramnesia,” which fades into a moaning male choir, then a hip-hop beat, over which spirits from hell wail and wail and wail. The album as a whole sounds more like his sometime”drone-aborators” Sunn 0))) than his more well-known (and blacker) alter-ego. That Wrest is able to pull off the change from fast to slow, noise to silence, all by his lonesome makes the results all the more amazing. Lurker of Chalice is going to scare a good percentage of unsuspecting listeners and possibly offend a few genre purists, but this album holds buried secrets that are worth unearthing with repeated listenings, preferably on headphones. – James Mason