Lykantropi – Tales To Be Told
Release Date: 6th November 2020
Label: Despotz Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Folk Prog, Psychedelic.
FFO: Fleetwood Mac, White Willow, Hexvessel, Purson.
Review By: Paul Franklin
‘In today’s society the old folk tales can be thought to belong to the delusions of the past.’ So starts the press release for Tales To Be Told,the new album from Sweden’s Lykanthropi – A name which itself means a delusion that a person can transform themselves into a werewolf. Unfortunately the only delusions here are that the band have actually written any memorable tunes!
Coming Your Way starts and sounds a bit Fleetwood Mac (especially the vocals of the wonderfully named My Shaolin) then you wait for it to show the dynamic occultism of the 60’s and 70’s that have been promised…..and wait…..and wait…and..you get the idea. It nevers goes anywhere. All the tracks sound exactly the same, they all seem to have the same meodies and vocal patterns. There really is no point in describing them in any detail as as they all just blur into 41 minutes of meadering banality. It’s the stuff that gets left on the cutting room floor when editing together a highlights package.
The video for the weary 6 minute Kom ta mig ut shows memebers of the band wandering slowly through a forest, looking moody and no doubt deep in meaningful thought. I was praying for a werewolf!
Their big thing is obviously an interest in folklore and fairy tales, but why does that have to result in music that sounds like such a cliche? You know from the moment that first inevitable flute announces itself what the album is going to be, why not try something a bit more interesting, for example, a lot of fairytales were the horror stories of their day (just think of some of the twisted shit the Grimms wrote).
Lykanthropi may have Tales To Be Told, doesn’t mean you have to listen.
(1 / 5)
