The Lylat Continuum – Ephemeral
Release Date: 19th February 2021
Label: Self-Released
Bandcamp
Genre: Progressive Metal, Progressive Death Metal.
FFO: Between The Buried And Me, The Contortionist, The Zenith Passage.
Review By: Ryan Shearer
The Lylat Continuum are a new band on the scene, and have enlisted some well-known names to help them craft their debut, Ephemeral. Evan Sammons of Last Chance to Reason brings the rumble, playing drums and Jordan Eberhardt of The Contortionist picks up bass duties. Ephemeral tells the story of a mobile suit pilot (“Get in the Eva, Shinji!”) hallucinating on his death bed. It is a grand aspiration, that unfortunately lets itself down.
Into The Vast is an instrumental introduction with some harsh vocals entering at the last minute. It covers a range of tones, with the most dominant being 80’s sci-fi inspired. Synths take centre stage throughout. It closes and abruptly stops, before going into Zero. It and the following track Epyon are both over 10 minutes. Vocalist Chrys Robb growls are intimidating and brutal. Some moments seamlessly transition from heavy, blast-beat-laden riffs to calming ambient soundscapes and other moments are jarring in their shift.
Level 5 feels very much inspired by The Contortionist. From warm and uplifting prog melodies bringing an audio brightness to the album, the percussion alternates approaches what feels like every other bar. It helps keep things interesting, highlighting different flavours for each section with a strong percussive foundation.
The end of the album is a strong finish. Libra is the most cohesive track on the album. Its arrangement is confident and aggressive, still sounding like a progressive metal track without feeling like a recipe with too many ingredients. The title track Ephemeral is technically impressive, with syncopated drum fills and dark, moody guitar sections.
There is energy in the songs, but the production almost works against it. The mix feels dull and at the moments where you can feel the energy swelling, it rarely pay off. Drummer Evan Sammons (of Last Chance to Reason) really is the standout performer of Ephemeral. His interesting fills and dynamics shine through consistently especially in tracks like Level 5 and Ephemeral, adding additional complexity to already unusual rhythms.
Ephemeral feels like it doesn’t have a proper direction and suffers because of this. There is a lot going on – a huge range of synth effects and tones pop in and out throughout the entire album which, while keeping things interesting & unexpected, makes the album feel incohesive. Meta & Sector Y, the mid-album instrumentals ebb and flow from calming soundscapes to progressive sci-fi electronics, but never really commit to a tone or mood for long enough for it to feel worth investing in.
The album isn’t awful, but I am hard pressed to call it enjoyable either. It absolutely feels, from head to toe, like a first album. The percussion deserved praise as you can tell the skill and composition comes from experience, but this album projects the fact this is a band still trying to understand who they are. There are moments, especially in the later part of the album that sound like a glimpse into the future where The Lylat Continuum have found their feet. The album is undoubtedly ambitious in its scale (a story which can essentially be boiled down to an episode of Gundam Wing on shrooms) but fails to reach the heights it sets itself.
I wouldn’t particularly recommend steering clear as it isn’t awful, but it isn’t good either. I found myself struggling to finish Ephemeral which in itself is telling. What I would recommend, however, is keeping the band on your radar. With more time and more refined production, The Lylat Continuum may impress in the future.
(2.5 / 5)
