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Formed back in 2006, this Rugby quintet aren’t just your standard post-hardcore fayre. By dabbling in progressive metal they have created a fearsomely complex combination of scarring aggression juxtaposed against steadily unwinding comedowns. With a professed love for the unpredicatability the live show brings, word has certainly got round about just how far they are willing to go to “bring da noize”.
Here we have the mini-album, ‘Nibiru’, Lavondyss‘ frighteningly heavy follow-up to their debut EP, and it certainly isn’t shy in coming forward. A spitting, unhinged roar pitched into a steady hammering bass drum and crashing cymbal combination is what greets you as opener ‘Meanwhile… Back On Earth’ sparks into life. From here arpeggio string work and heaving breakdowns eventually find their way to an eerie dropout where a slow picked electric calms you ready for the second onslaught. This interestingly melodic heart has an impressively hard outer coating around it - a well-thought out, and craftily-built structure proving there are some fine young songwriters at work here.
‘A Giant Warned Me’ stands proudly out as the band’s more emotive side, ending up sounding something along the lines of Protest The Hero or Fall Of Troy. It lingers long on the vocal hooks and scales the upper notes with a classy resonance to snag and stick in our minds. There isn’t that tendency to overload key parts with instruments and it’s fascinating to listen to different instruments dropping out, allowing others to take the lead. ‘For Future Reference’ is almost overly recumbent - there isn’t that brittle-edged brilliance about it’s construction and it finds itself weakened by the tendency to dwell over its own vocal meanderings.
‘Were It So Easy’ is a gem. Brilliantly scatterbrained and, naturally, reminiscent of Architects, its something akin to fighting off a particularly determined wasp - you can never predict which angle it’s going to come at you from. The elongated drum collapse at 1 min 30 sec is actually the sound of someone going slowly mad. Then to wrap things all up we have ‘00:00’ and it’s recklessly gentle comedown… and relax. Where the lads go after birthing this beast is both a worrying and exciting prospect. Whichever direction they choose to head in, their full-length debut will be eagerly awaited here at Sonic Towers.
For Fans Of: Architects, Fall Of Troy, Johnny Truant - John Skibeat
Lavondyss were an unknown band to me until a few days ago and I have now learnt many things such as their new EP 'Nibiru' was recorded in my home town of Tetbury, Gloucestershire and was produced by Devil Sold His Soul's guitarist Jonny Renshaw at his private studio with Fastlane guitarist Matty O' Grady mastering the record and it seems like the team work from Jonny and Matty could be taking many UK bands by storm as they are both working on production and mastering duties on the forthcoming Deaf Havana EP which I am really looking forward to, anyway enough of the history lesson lets get back to Lavondyss.
So Lavondyss have been touring across the whole of UK for the past two years pretty much non stop and they released their debut EP 'Available For Children's Parties' pretty much this time last year, it was a self financed release and helped gain the band a good name in the underground UK hardcore scene and helped catch the attention of A Wolf At Your Door Records who soon snapped the band up.
The bands new EP 'Nibiru' is now here and is 6 tracks in length and to be fair it’s one of the best EP's I have heard from an up and coming English hardcore band in sometime, it’s got the technical ness of Protest The Hero mixed with the heaviness of The Fall Of Troy and some catchy sing along moments thrown into the mix for good measures.
The EP opens with '...Meanwhile...Back On Earth' and the song opens in such an angry fashion with meaty guitar riffs that’s heavy enough to rip your face off and raw screams loud and angry enough to match the huge guitar riffs and then out of no where the vocals become really poppy and sing along but not for long as the vocals revert back to their shouty ways and a fast assault of drumming kicks off, the song is structured well, there is a lot on offer and there is a lot of stopping and starting and changes in music styles such as the eerie chilled out sounding instrumental piece that runs from 1 minute 17 seconds until the song explodes into madness at 1 minute and 51 seconds, from moments like this you can clearly see that Lavondyss are talented song writers and are going to find it a breeze progressing their sound in the future.
The introduction to 'A Giant Warned Me', screams out Protest the Hero to me as its technical and as heavy as Protest The Hero are but what makes this different is the chilled out breakdowns and the machine gun style guitar riffs and drum beats that come and go throughout the song, as the song closes you get another Protest The Hero feel with the fade out effect running across the bands more sing along vocals.
All the songs on the EP are quality but shine for totally different reasons from each other, for example the best moment about 'For Future Reference' is the fierce and explosive 20 second introduction that quickly turns from madness to mellow soundscapes and more chilled out near spoken word sing along singing. 'Were It So Easy' is a great song from start to finish and has so many top moments throughout it, the vocals are the most sing along on the album and stand out so much but at the same time the raw screams that work along side the sing along vocals work equally well, the breakdowns are great at one point you are left with just the instrument distortion sounds before the Lee Tysall treats us to some kind of built up drum solo.
The EP finishes with '00:00', the song is a full on instrumental track and it’s like a bit of a resting point from the previous 25 minutes of madness that you have just listened to and gives you a bit of time to get your head straight again after taking in so much in such a short amount of time as to be fair Lavondyss have crammed so much into a 6 track EP.
Lavondyss have what it takes to become pretty huge, their new EP 'Nibiru' can’t be faulted and to be honest it leaves me wanting to hear more from them as they have something special going on, they are like an English version of Protest The Hero with a more experimental edge and that’s a good thing as Protest The Hero are one of my favourite bands at the moment.
It’s going to be interesting to see if people pick up on Lavondyss, I really hope they do as otherwise all this talent will be wasted. I will certainly be checking Lavondyss out on the live circuit in September when they tour with We Are Fiction as I am quite positive that their live show won’t disappoint.
5/5
Review by Trigger - Trigger
Technically Impressive Debut Mini-Album From Tetchy Brit Crew
Lavondyss must be fucking superb at Guitar Hero. Whereas a lot of metalcore can be one dimensional and heavily reliant on a good old throaty “Woooargh!”, this Warwickshire quintet’s debut offering is an intricate, involved affair that occasionally skirts an almost prog-like complexity. They’re clearly apt musicians and the flashes of mental dexterity and off-kilter structures serves them well, elevating Nibiru above many such low budget, high anger statements of ill-ease. Flitting from bleak, sparse atmospherics to pummelling aggression and funeral drudge keeps their sound remarkably fresh and intriguing but perhaps where they do fall down is that, for all their intricacy, they lack that one killer riff to really nail a song into the memory.
DOWNLOAD: Interval At A Ghost Show
FOR FANS OF: Thrice, Johnny Truant
- Kerrang
Discography
Nibiru - 2008 (A Wolf At Your Door Records)
Available For Children's Parties - 2007 (Self Released)
Reborn Into Disaster - 2006 (Self Released)
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Bio
Lavondyss are a hardcore quintet from Rugby. They enjoy countryside cottages, evening strolls and above all, cups of tea. Or brothels, hit and runs and constant alcohol abuse, which ever you think works best.
Beginning at the beginning. 2006 saw Lavondyss form, write a set and begin to jump around in front of people. Putting on, from the very first show, a set of technical musicianship well beyond their years and an awe-inspiring energy constant from the first click to the last note, if there’s one thing their home crowd learnt in those early months watching Lavondyss, it was Don’t Blink.
Two years down the line and Lavondyss had toured the country relentlessly still putting on an energetically entertaining live show and progressing musically with every new track. Headlining the Birmingham Barfly, opening up for Architects, releasing their first demo EP ‘Available For Children’s Parties’ by themselves, receiving positive reviews from various websites and zines for said homebrew CD and a number of impressive live reviews from BBC reps, somehow finding themselves on Channel 4 touching Alex Zane inappropriately and playing more shows in more places with more people than any of them would like to remember, all caught the attention of Shropshire’s A Wolf At Your Door Records.
After playing a few showcases for the label, the band had proved their pudding, so to speak, and the label offered them an EP and two-album contract. Recruiting Klash Music Management, the band decided working with WAYD was the way they wanted to go.
As musically the band evolved adding a much more progressive edge to their over all sound, proggy/hardcore interspersed with poppy, sing-along parts and taking influence from The Fall of Troy, Protest The Hero and Alexisonfire. The live set became ever more relentless, now a full showcase of energy, ever daring the audience to out last the performers in physical exertion.
With a record label and full management company behind them Lavondyss began to work harder than they ever had before. Heading off to record their new Mini album ‘Nibiru’ with ‘Devil Sold His Soul’s Jonny Renshaw at his private studio, with Matty O’Grady (The Arusha Accord, You Me At Six) having mastered the record, the band are looking to this CD to portray them as the musicians they are today, with a nod to the future and the continued work-hard-play-harder attitude that got them to this stage.
Having shows with Architects, InMe & Bury Tomorrow already under their belts and many more scheduled for the future, a brand new Mini-Album and a new set that most fear has the destructive force of Coke and Mentos 2008 will be the year Lavondyss make themselves heard. Even if that means calling off an evening stroll.
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