FLESH MECHANIC
Haunting album with so many different approaches that every song on its own is like a unique horror movie, embracing you in a dark and cold fantasy. As always, only Locrian can bomb your ears with noisy drone and quiet atmospheric melodies. Their style is truly amazing.
Favorite track: Antediluvian Territory.
Choco Latte
The combination of feedback, keyboards, guitars and other worldly sounds makes this one of my favourite Locrian albums. This has the most cohesive 'songs' that they've done so far.
Favorite track: Procession Of Ancestral Brutalism.
Shuttered arcades
Ghost signs / along the way
Dead terrain
A periphery of shadow
A dying void
Dwelling among the mists
Obstructed by filth
The illusion of the plan
Waves and radiation
Windscale piles
Beneath a hemorrhaging sky
Urnfields and an erased reflection
Displacement
Between Holocene barrows
A ring road
A failed sarcophagus
about
Co-released by BloodLust! Territories is the second studio full-length from Locrian. The album was recorded in January 2009, at Phantom Manor Studios in Chicago, IL, and it features a group of collaborators including Blake Judd (Nachtmystium, Twilight), Bruce Lamont (Yakuza), Andrew Scherer (Velnias), and Mark Solotroff (Anatomy of Habit, BLOODYMINDED). André Foisy and Terence Hannum have spent the last several years honing the Locrian sound and they have taken elements from noise, power-electronics, drone, and black metal to come up with a truly unique approach that reflects the sprawling urban decay that surrounds them in Chicago. After nearly two dozen releases, they have found themselves in the world of "Territories." For this release, Locrian has pulled out all of the stops and they have fleshed out the band with the help of Mark Solotroff on vocals and synthesizer, Blake Judd on guitar, Bruce Lamont on saxophone and vocals, and Andrew Scherer on drums. The results of this massive collaborative effort are apparent from the moment that the album starts. The textures run darker and deeper; the vocals -- sometimes three layers deep -- seem to be conjured from the decrepit muck of a failed civilization; the feedback takes on a more pronounced presence; and the augmented line-up allows for full-on black metal assaults that burst out of the tortured drones that Locrian have come to be known for. Truly a case of the whole being greater than the sum of the parts, "Territories" may well be the most fully realized form of Locrian’s dystopian vision. As with their previous album, "Drenched Lands" (2009, At War With False Noise and Small Doses - CD; BloodLust! - LP), "Territories" was skillfully mastered by Jason Ward at Chicago Mastering Service, and the sound could not be more monumental. The limited edition LP version of "Territories," released in March 2010, garnered extremely strong critical attention (see selected reviews below) and we expect to reach even more ears and eyes with this new, handsome six-panel digipak compact disc edition.
Territories “Press Excerpts”
“The scale of ‘Territories’ is vast indeed, and such a project on such a scale could have easily failed and fallen into the trap of throwing TOO much into the mix, but it has succeeded effortlessly. ‘Territories’ is a triumph of sound, and deserves to be heard by EVERYONE of an adventurous musical leaning. Especially those of us who do not usually care for black metal.”
-The Sleeping Shaman
"What at first comes across as unstructured, poorly executed racket recorded in an oil drum by a monkey with learning difficulties, eventually it reveals itself to be an intense 50 minute drone odyssey; the multitude of seemingly random clicks, glitches and oddities making for a deceptively textured and engrossing album.”
-Toby Cook, The Quietus
“It’s exceedingly rare to anticipate an album exploding onto the scene without some jaded sense of fluke connections or passing fancies but only by an essential power and brilliance which cannot be confused. ‘Territories’ is one of those moments, and it couldn’t happen to a more deserving outfit. And if this isn’t the moment which does it for Locrian, I’m probably not alone in feeling relief that they’ll be ours for a little longer.”
-Animal Psi
“It’s exceedingly rare to anticipate an album exploding onto the scene without some jaded sense of fluke connections or passing fancies but only by an essential power and brilliance which cannot be confused. ‘Territories’ is one of those moments, and it couldn’t happen to a more deserving outfit. And if this isn’t the moment which does it for Locrian, I’m probably not alone in feeling relief that they’ll be ours for a little longer.”
-Justin Snow, Anti-Gravity Bunny
“It’s exceedingly rare to anticipate an album exploding onto the scene without some jaded sense of fluke connections or passing fancies but only by an essential power and brilliance which cannot be confused. ‘Territories’ is one of those moments, and it couldn’t happen to a more deserving outfit. And if this isn’t the moment which does it for Locrian, I’m probably not alone in feeling relief that they’ll be ours for a little longer.”
-Creaig Dunton, Brainwashed
“Locrian’s Territories ends with the torrentially uplifting “The Columnless Arcade.” The Chicago duo of André Foisy and Terence Hannum still create plenty of dark, crumbling, murky washes and spacious Prurient-on-Loren Mazzacane Connors noisescapes, but since their last collection Drenched Lands (and a handful of shorter 2009 releases), they’ve added a rock layer to the bleak ambiance.”
-Brandon Stosuy, Stereogum
“…The atoms of ambient, noise/drone, power electronics and black metal have been split and reconfigured in these six tracks…they've scratched out a view of the world that's negative/dystopian/ugly, but infused the music with a metallic, detached sheen...An absolutely flooring album in an age where such things matter less and less.”
- Scott McKeating, Rock-a-Rolla
credits
released January 1, 2010
LOCRIAN | Territories
André Foisy & Terence Hannum
With Blake Judd, Bruce Lamont, Andrew Scherer, and Mark Solotroff
Recorded and mixed by Steve Beyerink and Locrian at the Phantom Manor, Chicago, IL, USA
Mastered and cut by Jason Ward at Chicago Mastering Service
Locrian was formed in late 2005 by André Foisy and Terence Hannum. Allmusic has described the band as an ”eclectic mixture
of black metal, electronics, drone and noise rock”. The band have identified krautrock and '90s death metal as influences as well....more
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one of the most beautiful albums i've ever heard. in my top20 best album of all time. just artfully done and meticulously produced, all around, iheartf2p