Liste der Bands Thrash Black Lilyum Ultimatum

The album’s flyer states that “Fans of Gorgoroth, Mayhem & Darkthrone will not regret this!”. Will they? I don’t think so.Will they enjoy it, though? Hmmm…maybe. It depends on what one expects from such a release. Lilyum is an Italian band of two and ‘Ultimatum’ is theirsecond full-length effort, along with a couple of EPs. They sound like… Black Metal really! Sometimes fast, sometimes mid-tempo or slow with atmospheric (in a “good” way!) breaks. The Scandinavian influence on the riffing is obvious, aswell as a touch of early Emperor during the slower parts of the album, which shows a variety in terms of changes, speed and ideas. They are not re-inventing the wheel of course, and some of their moments have been heard countless times since the early ‘90’s. But to their credit, these moments are not going further than the “influence” line. In some strange way they reminded me of Burzum’s “Filosofem’ and Nachtmystium’s ‘Assassins’, especially at how the mood changes throughout the CD.

Indeed, the songs, by being longer than 6 min each, can and do incorporate several elements (such as acoustic guitars, narrations and clean vocals) that are linked together in a way that allows the music to “breath”. Amongst the faster parts, that try to create a ‘cold’ atmosphere, are breaks created by either keyboards (kept to a minimum) or “doomy” riffs.The sound production meets most of the basic standards of the genre, although the use of drum programming sometimes “lowers” the final result, which is not bad but gives the feeling that some details could be better sounding. The lyrics, dealing mainly with misanthropic themes, are worth reading and aren’t there just for the singer to scream words! This shows that the band has spent some time before composing and recording. The artwork, with its black-white demon, is a good introduction to what this release sounds like.

Summing up; did I enjoy listening to ‘Ultimatum”? Yes, I did, but I have a feeling that some would prefer an album of clearer intentions. Nevertheless, the band sounds confident with what they’re doing,and this is a plus for their underground status. They definitely have some good ideas mixed with some more typical moments. Would I listen to them again in the future? I can’t find a reason why not to, especially as they show signs of going a level up compared with their previous EPs.

Keeping in mind that this is an underground release:
16/20

P.S. How, on Earth, can someone play the melody of Gary Numan’s “Cars” in a Black Metal song and make it sound fine?!!!