Band:	Lurker Of Chalice
Album:	Lurker Of Chalice
Style:	Ambient black metal
Release date:	June 27, 2005
A review by:	Lucas

01. I
02. Piercing Where They Might
03. Spectre As Valkerie Is
04. Minions
05. Paramnesia
06. This Blood Falls As Mortal Part III
07. Granite
08. Vortex Chalice
09. Fastened To The Five Points

Lurker Of Chalice, a name that should ring a bell for the Black metallers out there. Two completely unavailable demos, one hard-to-get full-length. A full-length that cost many Black metaller a dear buck until it was finally re-released by Southern Lord. In my opinion, Lurker Of Chalice's self-titled, début and at the same time also final album was one of the few albums on e-bay that actually deserved to be sold for more than thirty quid/bucks???. Why? Let me tell you why.

But first I'll share with you what baffles me about this band, which is the one-man-side-project of Leviathan, the one-mans-band by Wrest. With both he plays atmospheric Black metal, with LoC the gets on the ambient side of things and with Leviathan he dwells on the Burzum/suicidal side of the spectrum. And it may be just me, but the difference in quality is unbelievably huge. Yeah, Leviathan is a "fun" listen but doesn't hold a candle to the eerie, dark, sinister and pitch-black tranquility this album evokes. Although tranquility is perhaps not the right word, lethargy comes closer. Once this album unfolds itself and takes you in its inviting embrace, you simply cannot care anymore. Even if you would want to, it is impossible. Compare it to floating in space where there is no resistance at all so not a single move of your body will matter. You simply float, utterly free but also inescapably captured.

The lethargy is mostly brought on by the bass. The other instruments are top-notch, but the bass is absolutely amazing. No matter how eerie the riff ("Piercing Where They Might"), no matter how touching the acoustic guitar (Vortex Chalice), no matter how hollow and desperate the vocals (Granite), no matter how estranging the samples (This Blood Falls As Mortal Part III) or how subtly saddening the keyboard (pretty much all songs), the bass wins. Its thrusting power yet gentle touch, its pushing force yet warm and smooth charm. The bass is brilliant. He'll make your warm blood slowly creep through your veins and have you shiver of such strange, yet blissful feelings.

If you approach this purely on a theoretic, genre-based level you will come to the conclusion that this "Ambient Black Metal" album actually has way to few influences of Black metal to actually count as a Black metal album. But at the same time you cannot deny that there is something here that can only be there because of the background of the creator. And why should it matter anyway? What counts is that this album is absolutely gold material for those that can appreciate this style. Draw the curtains, turn the lights off, get yourself a drink and float, floooooaaaaat...