- Apr 5, 2003
- 2,668
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Lycosia - Apokalipstik
Equilibre Music - EM010 - 2006
By Brandon Strader
It's true. Lycosia, the frilly and fluffy glam-goth rock band, is back with their fourth album. Now I can handle frilly and fluffy girl-based glam rock bands, but when they are filled out by men with womanly voices who were probably dancing around in pink and rubbing against each other during the recording sessions of the album, that makes me feel a bit uncomfortable. Imagery aside, the music isn't too bad. It's, well... different. In a world where everyone is listening to those Simpson chicks, and Paris Hilton, this is a breath of fresh air and would make a great disversion if people started listening to stuff like this instead. It at least has decent songwriting and a kind of creativity that is now shunned in the mainstream music scenes. It does sound like something you would have listened to in the 80s, and doesn't seem very fresh, though... By which I mean the production and songwriting totally sounds like a blast from the far away past.
The band utilize some specific elements to get this sound: a guitar tone that is overly distorted yet not very sharp to give it a hard, exploding sound, and bleeps and bloops that sound like they were played from a very old synthesizer, or programmed in a computer with older sounding tones. They also use a percussion pack of older-sounding hits that obviously sounds programmed, and at times they also drop in a techno drum beat for added effect. "Last Splash" is a pretty straight-forward song that displays the older vibes most appropriately. "All These Worlds" swerves in a different direction with a cleaner guitar tone, and less synths to make it a much calmer song yet the tempo is still pretty quick. Also the vocalist provides some clean vocals that you can actually hear instead of the normal high-pitched rock vocals covered in delay that they use for most of the heavier parts. "Follow Me" changes even farther with an even cleaner guitar tone, and even more clear clean vocals! At this rate, one would think the last song on the album would sound like Enya or something. It's a much calmer song, with a slower tempo and the whole deal. Even the heavy guitar tone used during the chorus is pretty clean in comparison to the earlier ones.
As much as you'd like to hate these guys, you probably won't once you experience enough of Apokalipstik. The choruses are very catchy, and the band does have the ability to make very soothing arrangements when they aren't furiously rocking old school. Fans of pop, punk, and even industrial stuff will probably dig this quite a bit if you can look past the corniness of the whole facade with which the band displays themselves. I don't suppose it really matters if they do dress in pink and dance around like a bunch of San Fransisco'ans in a techno club, as the band is able to stand pretty well through their studio work and the only way you would really know if they did such a thing is by seeing them live, or on a music video. It's a good fourth album, a bit rough around the edges but good nonetheless.
7.5/10
UM's Review Rating Scale
Official Lycosia Website
Official Equilibre Music Website
Equilibre Music - EM010 - 2006
By Brandon Strader
It's true. Lycosia, the frilly and fluffy glam-goth rock band, is back with their fourth album. Now I can handle frilly and fluffy girl-based glam rock bands, but when they are filled out by men with womanly voices who were probably dancing around in pink and rubbing against each other during the recording sessions of the album, that makes me feel a bit uncomfortable. Imagery aside, the music isn't too bad. It's, well... different. In a world where everyone is listening to those Simpson chicks, and Paris Hilton, this is a breath of fresh air and would make a great disversion if people started listening to stuff like this instead. It at least has decent songwriting and a kind of creativity that is now shunned in the mainstream music scenes. It does sound like something you would have listened to in the 80s, and doesn't seem very fresh, though... By which I mean the production and songwriting totally sounds like a blast from the far away past.
The band utilize some specific elements to get this sound: a guitar tone that is overly distorted yet not very sharp to give it a hard, exploding sound, and bleeps and bloops that sound like they were played from a very old synthesizer, or programmed in a computer with older sounding tones. They also use a percussion pack of older-sounding hits that obviously sounds programmed, and at times they also drop in a techno drum beat for added effect. "Last Splash" is a pretty straight-forward song that displays the older vibes most appropriately. "All These Worlds" swerves in a different direction with a cleaner guitar tone, and less synths to make it a much calmer song yet the tempo is still pretty quick. Also the vocalist provides some clean vocals that you can actually hear instead of the normal high-pitched rock vocals covered in delay that they use for most of the heavier parts. "Follow Me" changes even farther with an even cleaner guitar tone, and even more clear clean vocals! At this rate, one would think the last song on the album would sound like Enya or something. It's a much calmer song, with a slower tempo and the whole deal. Even the heavy guitar tone used during the chorus is pretty clean in comparison to the earlier ones.
As much as you'd like to hate these guys, you probably won't once you experience enough of Apokalipstik. The choruses are very catchy, and the band does have the ability to make very soothing arrangements when they aren't furiously rocking old school. Fans of pop, punk, and even industrial stuff will probably dig this quite a bit if you can look past the corniness of the whole facade with which the band displays themselves. I don't suppose it really matters if they do dress in pink and dance around like a bunch of San Fransisco'ans in a techno club, as the band is able to stand pretty well through their studio work and the only way you would really know if they did such a thing is by seeing them live, or on a music video. It's a good fourth album, a bit rough around the edges but good nonetheless.
7.5/10
UM's Review Rating Scale
Official Lycosia Website
Official Equilibre Music Website
