Band:	Lascaille's Shroud
Album:	The Roads Leading North
Style:	Progressive death metal
Release date:	June 12, 2016
A review by:	ScreamingSteelUS

Disc I
01. A Child Conspiring With The Stars
02. Compass
03. Restrain The Child
04. The Neon City, Part 1: Dreams
05. The Roads Leading North
06. Vehemence Drone
07. Sketches Of Madness
08. Unspeakably Defiled

Disc II
01. Enduring Fugue
02. What Dwells Beneath Her Flesh
03. When Sleep Takes Us
04. No Destiny
05. The Neon City, Part 2: Nightmares
06. The Disappearance Of Elizabeth North

You know that Lascaille's Shroud is a great band because I'm not pissed off that I had to sit through over two hours of album just to hear The Roads Leading North a single time.

Of course, I doubt any fan of Lascaille's Shroud would be satisfied with anything less than a monolithic slab of endless music at this point. We all know by now that settling in to listen to LS means setting aside a whole evening, and that, somehow, every minute leads us down a previously-unexplored musical road to a new and exciting destination. At the most basic level, crafting an album of such epic proportions that remains engaging and challenging throughout its running time is no mean feat, but Lascaille's Shroud isn't content to play the game like Saurom and fill us up with a double-album's worth of hyper-melodic pop songs atomically-engineered to stick in our brains. The Roads Leading North relies on a much deeper, stronger breed of cohesive songwriting.

One of the main reasons I suspect LS can hold a listener's interest for so long is that the albums have a unique grasp on dynamics. In the midst of so many heady progressive pieces, it can be difficult to craft a balanced album that doesn't collapse into a conceptual wasteland or exhaust the listener's energy with too many stimuli. The Roads Leading North has its tension wells and its explosive climaxes, but the album generally maintains a steady level of depth and energy, allowing the music to be continuously palatable for such great stretches of time. Lascaille's Shroud deals more heavily in atmosphere than is initially apparent; it's like something in between a soundtrack and a conventional metal album, wherein songs define moods with laborious build-up and protracted thematic deliberation, but without welshing on wicked screams and badass guitar licks.

The Roads Leading North edges out its predecessors in heaviness, production, and songwriting, showing that Brett Windnagle is definitely making improvements in his juggling of so many responsibilities. The solos are flashier, the guitars are djentier, the vocal lines are catchier, and the keyboards are more varied, omnipresent, and eerily sci-fi than ever, but we still hear the familiar, soaring voices of guests John Yelland (Judicator/Disforia) and Patrick Parris (Project: Roenwolfe) accompanying Brett's growls and the same raw, dystopian environment of LS past. This album feels more purposeful than the others and more inclined to experiment with different atmospheres or genres, particularly in the pursuit of creating a darker and more technological feeling. I can't stop thinking about the Mass Effect soundtracks when I hear the stuff going on in this release (see "Sketches Of Madness").

The Roads Leading North is spacey, hypnotic, and surreal, but nonetheless memorable and filled with sadistic sonic barrages that show Lascaille's Shroud can destroy as well as think and feel. Between the heightened standards of musicianship, the more interesting songwriting, and the generally more professional quality, I'd say that The Roads Leading North is the best work Lascaille's Shroud has done to date. The album may feel like it runs forever, but it makes use of every second - from the mechanical pounding of "Compass" to the beautiful soloing in "What Dwells Beneath Her Flesh" to the mournful quietude that opens and closes "The Disappearance Of Elizabeth North."

(This is the part where I lament that I'm not getting paid by the hour.)