Lurk – S/T – CD 2012
With a front cover and inner sleeve featuring grisly images of the jaw lines of what look like mechanised, alien piranhas lurking (pun intended) in the murky depths of the blackest of oceans, it’s a telling sign that this isn’t going to sound exactly like the latest Rihanna release. Indeed, on this menacing front, Lurk do not disappoint: six sizeable barrages of grim and unsurrendering death-doom await you dear listener, and it’s as mighty as it is ugly.
An unexpected arrival on the scene by way of the deepest darkest crevices of Finland, Lurk have been around since 2008, presumably dwelling under a rock at the foot of the Baltic Sea, mangling the din booming from their amps ever more until they were potent enough to surface. A simple four piece comprised of the mysteriously initialised K.Koskinen (vocals), A.Pulkkinen (guitars, synth), K.Nurmi (drums) and M.Reinikainen (bass), this ear-wrecking mob have recently found a home on Israel’s Totalrust Records before brandishing this, their debut monster of a mini-album.
Taking clear cues from grand-masters Celtic Frost, Venom and My Dying Bride, opening cuts ‘Soar’ and ‘Unfinished’ are brooding infernos of turbulent, sluggish riffage, iron age drumming and Koskinen’s bloodthirsty, yet operatic rasp. Barely shifting the tempo away from a sombre chug for the first half of the record, there’s nonetheless enough synthesised atmospherics to keep this interesting as the troops doom their way from the tar pits of hell to your headphones.
The four-count cymbal tap intro to ‘Fire the Blood Sky’ opens out into a slightly more rock n’ roll riff and, dare I say it, a rather cleaner, more direct slab of chest-beating metal. Some sinister cathedral organ effects sit slightly behind the drums, providing a delicate, but not completely uncheesy, Adams Family haunted house impact.
There’s a greater Neurosis-meets-Yob vibe around ‘Pitch Beneath Eternity’, the bellowing vocals dominating the mix to suffocate the bass and thundering howitzer crash sound effects. There’s a comparatively esoteric breakout section preceding Koskinen’s bile-spitting final commands, but overall the mid-tempo sludge riffs are starting to wear a little tiresome. ‘Deliverance’ is the best cut of the six, a backbeat and downtrodden dirge sounding as desolate and distant as a Paradise Lost gig played to no-one in an abandoned warehouse, miles from civilisation. This opens out into a crunching slog of windmilling guitars and muddied basslines, before sinking back into the bunker of desolated human spirits.
I can’t see ‘Lurk’ going down as an all-time classic debut record, nor is it an instant smash hit, but it is an album that grows on you in its crushing quest for the ugliest of metallic passages. The production is excellent, sounding clean, polishing and complete whilst retaining a filthy guitar tone and an avalanche of drumming from Nurmi’s steady sticks. Koskinen sounds like the devil’s town-crier, slowly ripping his vocal chords from his throat until all that’s left is a defiant roar of terror.
Let’s hope that Lurk don’t go too far back under their rock any time in the near future – swimming with the piranhas is just where they belong.
Label: Totalrust Music
Website: www.myspace.com/lurkdoom
Scribed by: Pete Green
