Yep, it’s a bit of a mouthful and no surprise this project is shortened to the more immediate name of LIK. Although they are Swedish, they should not be confused with the death metal band of the same name. I have just covered the new Gothic rock album by De Arma from ex Armagedda member A Petterson and this is by his former collaborator in that act Graav. The two of them have shared plenty of sensibilities over the years such as in their folky project Lönndom and of course Armagedda and here Petterson has provided the artwork. This is LIK’s first album in ten years and I had no idea what to expect here but it certainly was never going to be of a Gothic orientation as Vintersorg, Ved Buens Ende, Ulver, Finntroll & Korpiklaani are mentioned in the PR. Having it a spin I was bamboozled as guess what, I cant hear any of those artists here but I would certainly say this is of a Gothic orientation rather than anything else. Having said that it is quite a different beast from De Arma and similarities really end there.

Here Graav is the Flame Of The Abyss Poet according to translation and the first episode of this ‘Black Art’ (all title and lyrics in their original mother tongue), jangles in with a serious Death Rock vibe reminding a bit of early Christian Death. Vocals are clean and harmonic and have the Danzig Evil Elvis vibe about them which unfortunately turns me off as I simply cannot abide the horror punk style that they derive from. Bats unleashed from their cave, the title track is next and really seems somewhat confusing as it is a song that goes in different directions within itself and I at first kept thinking it was three different numbers. Wails and a slower temple bring the pace down and this is at first doom laden and glum, those croons already putting me off and the slow turgid pace not helping in the slightest. After crawling through this section, the music stops momentarily and we get a spiky instrumental guitar part perhaps to add some atmosphere and then another disparate part that I guess is a bit folky but leaves me somewhat confused about just what is going on here before it finishes. Next, we get a big growl and some up-tempo chugging on Helgedomens dödsportar (The Holy Gates Of Death). It’s got a bit of that Early Fields Of The Nephilim ‘Power’ about it but just feels really basic and just as it gets going settles into more naval gazing doom. I really am finding that this goes all over the place and nothing really gels. This is an album that is hard-going and really leaving me cold.

And so, it continues ‘Avliv’ (Kill) has a melody that has a bit of a poppy tone to it and musically could be an offcut from a recent album by The Damned. The guitar chugs are simplicity in themselves; copy and pasted from a now that’s what I call Goth compilation circa the 80’s. I guess this does at least sound authentic in many ways, the bass heavy production also making it sound like something from that era rather than jumping on a post-punk bandwagon. However, with songs taking a riff and repeating them for lengths stretched to the 10-minute mark, numbers like Kvävan really have worn me down as I have done my very best trying to find something good to say about this, over repeated listens. Finally, we do get somewhere though with last track ‘Avtryck’ those Evil Elvis croons are dispensed with and we get blackened screams and a neat bouncing beat. However, once established drawing it out to an indeterminable running length of 12-minutes just leaves me close to wits end…

I have plenty of respect for Graav’s aforementioned projects but unfortunately this one really did not do it for me in the slightest. Oh well, you can’t win them all and as for any fans of Trolls and happy-clappy little boozing songs, I would suggest avoiding this one at all costs.

(4/10 Pete Woods)

https://thetruelik.bandcamp.com/album/avgrundpoetens-flamma-raw-mix