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The Black Label Planet

8 / 10
Lord Shades is a French melodic black / death metal band born in 2001 but only in 2008 they released their first album. In December of 2017 they released their third album “The Uprising of Namwell”, the last of a trilogy started in 2008. Not having heard the two previous albums, I must say that this is not an easy album. There are many things happening in each song and it requires a careful and attentive listening. I would also urge you to listen to it loudly in order to notice the richness that lies in the details.

The album begins with an acoustic guitar intro and it gains weight as it progresses, specially by the introduction of the electric guitar and drums. With the first song comes also the first surprise: a melodic death metal song with an accordion. This album is enriched by the big amount of guests that give color to the compositions. A good example is the inclusion of tribal percurssions at the end of “The Dark Host” song. One of the strongest songs of this album is “The Gift”. The main features here are Alex’s well-pronounced growls and the keyboards that resemble to Hollenthon ‘s sound (which was a good surprise). The torture screams and wind sounds take over by the end of the music and managed to install a sense of foreboding for the remaining songs of this album. As the album unfolds, the composition and structure becomes darker. One of the most interesting compositions of the album is the penultimate song “The Awakening”. This song manages to transports us to the Middle East with a balanced mixture of death metal with oriental sounds. The contribution of the guest Algerian vocalist singing in Arabic is another highlight of this track. The album closes with an epic track with more than 15 minutes duration, where the guest vocalist Sofiane Si-ammour shines in the first section of the song. It is worth to mention the existence of several choirs that were invited to participate in this album. The inclusion of different elements and guest artists proved to be a good investment in the conception and execution of this work.
This album will undoubtedly please fans of epic death metal, specially those that appreciate elaborate compositions with an appealing history. This is also an album suitable for those that like to sing along while listening to epic tales. Hopefully the end of this trilogy is to be followed by new projects and increased recognition by the genre fans. João Osório