Lam is an exciting new alternative metal group from Méribel, and Warrington, UK. Featuring Mike Pilat on lead vocals (from acclaimed Swiss metal band Herod, ex The Ocean), George Whalley (Broohaha, Gotts Street Park) on drums, Ben Vickers and James Beedham on guitar and bass. The name ‘Lam’ comes from an entity encountered by occultist Aleister Crowley in the 1910’s, during a ritual known as the Amalantrah Working. Lam is said to have ed through from another dimension and a portrait drawn of the entity after the event, went on to become the visual archetype for the ‘Gray’ aliens in modern popular culture.
The band formed in March 2020, and by September their first three track EP Liber K was finished – recorded all remotely, separate from each other during the first Covid-19 lockdown. Available to from 11/02/21, what began as a way to fill the time on a cold bare mountain in the French Alps, developed quickly and unwittingly into a full blown representation of the effects the virus was having, not only on a personal level, but socially too. These ideas are prominent in debut single “Ruin” (available online 14/01/21), screamed through Mike’s atonal incantation as the virus promises to – “Sow your fields with salt, and hail the ruin”, a sentiment carried off in the ominous toll of the church bell, disappearing into the desolate distance.
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Opening track ‘Lament’ begins as a sort of nostalgic post war ditty, complete with washer board style arrangement, stick bass and crackling vocals – before descending quickly into a complete schizophrenic nightmare. As ever increasing amounts of voices ascend into some sort of satanic choir – the track progresses into a machine like riff that seems to totally encom this burgeoning, perpetual, Covid fear.
Heavily stooped in the metal tradition, Lam take a very psychedelic angle on the ever expanding genre. Using unusual structures, rhythmic ideas and instrumentation (cite the brass section on “Lament”), they create strikingly visual music that’s reminiscent of King Crimson, Strapping Young Lad and modern day Djiants: Meshuggah.
On Liber K’s final track, “Absolved by Violence”, you can literally feel the punches being thrown the second it kicks in. Forced into a false sense of rhythmic security from the intro, the pounding drums suddenly slam you into the place you didn’t even realise you were already stood. Whilst the chorus gives a little respite as it falls into half time, you’re once again swung around by your ankles as the blast beats notch up, and you’re left scrambling to clutch onto your boots.
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“Ruin” is being released online as a single on the band’s label 4th Note Records on the January 14th 2021, along with a video made up from Benjamin Christensen’s 1922 film Haxan, which explores ideas and imagery found in Witchcraft, Satanism and Demonology. The original film seeks to compare occult practises of the past to modern day psychology, whilst here in its vastly edited form, serves as the perfect backdrop to a menacing anthem.
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