I found this album quite by chance via Twitter, and it’s so far “out there” that I just had to write some words on it. Shelob’s Lair is a solo project which is mainly black metal, but also rather experimental or at least certainly… shall we say “lo-fi”.
Asylum is a concept album insomuch as it has a background story, following a patient through a tortuous mental health system as the result of receiving extra-terrestrial messages. Hey, why not? Sci-fi is fun. So much for the theme, but how’s the music? Well, OK. The creator said to be honest…
The recording quality is awful. But to some extent I think that’s the point. This screams “lockdown project” and it’s painfully obvious that the whole thing’s been recorded in a kitchen using a standard microphone or something. No fancy mixing or mastering, no filters, no nothing. There are some effects chucked in here and there and they’re of a much higher quality, but at first listen it’s so easy to just go “Oh, come on… this is amateur shit.”
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But.
Actually give it a listen. Treat it as a low end, first draft demo and there’s actually a lot in there. Musically it’s not bad. There are some good riffs, and it’s brutal in places. Despite sounding like it was recorded on a crap 80s stereo at the rear a gig with 6 people attending, the songs themselves are pretty decent. And you know what, you can listen to it for nothing. Or buy it for a dollar.
Asylum has obviously been written, recorded and released for fun by someone with actual talent. Honestly, I’d like to hear a fully produced version just to see what someone could do with it.
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Asylum is out now via Bandcamp
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