Massive post metal hybrids LLNN and WOVOKA will release the audio punishment of their Marks/Traces split release this June via Pelagic Records. Copenhagen-based LLNN released their crushing debut, Loss, last year via Pelagic. Terrorizer crowned it, “a bleak soundtrack to a cinematic, post-apocalyptic landscape,” which couldn’t be more accurate. Indeed, the massively heavy, tightly-woven sonic fabric that these four young Danes create has been critically acclaimed throughout the European press landscape.
The Marks material which forms their part of this upcoming split album was written and partially self-released before Loss. But from the first crunching riff of opening track “The Guardian,” trudging along the simple, relentless rhythms before Christian Bonnesen’s truculent vocals take the song to the next level of blackened intensity, it becomes one-hundred-percent clear that this material is in no way any less mature than their debut. Much like Loss, the wavering drone synths that are effortlessly merged with their raw, hardcore-driven darkness defines the subtle idiosyncratic nuances of LLNN‘s wildly unsubtle, painfully overwhelming sound.
“WOVOKA‘s musical volleys are both panoramically expansive and crushingly claustrophobic,” wrote LA Weekly in trying to describe the audio manifestations of these four dark souls from the West Coast. Emerging from a near two-year slumber since their critically-lauded Saros debut, WOVOKA are contributing one single eighteen-minute opus to the album, picking up right where LLNN leaves off.
With compositions of truly epic proportions which transcend the clichés of heavy music, the band has scorched their position in the Los Angeles underground as one of the most volatile, unrelenting acts in the area. WOVOKA understand that true heaviness lies in reduction – reduction of tempo and of a musical idea to its bleak essence. Lyrically, “Traces” examines the nature of grief that comes from loss, in a fierce sonic representation of the emotional weight of fear, and the finality of greeting the end of one’s mortal coil.
LLNN‘s and WOVOK‘s Marks/Traces split will see release June 16th via Pelagic Records on CD, LP, and digital formats. Belgian artist Ammo was commissioned to create the stunning artwork, which perfectly reflects the music comprising this release. The vinyl edition comes with a hand-numbered, five-color screen-print. The limited edition comes on brass and black wax, which looks like an impact crater. Fans of Cult Of Luna, Neurosis, Amen Ra, Rosetta, and ISIS pay heed.
LLNN / WOVOKA split track listing:
LLNN – Marks
1. The Guardian
2. Swarms
3. Engineer Of Ire
4. Nostromo Falls
5. Eye Of The Covenant
6. GravitatedWOVOKA – Traces
7. Traces
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