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Lutece > ...and Ancestors Still Remain > Reviews
Lutece - ...and Ancestors Still Remain

Anaemic, underwhelming war machine - 45%

drengskap, May 2nd, 2007

Lutece are a French pagan war metal band. All instruments are played by Denosdrakkh, and lead vocals and lyrics are supplied by Hesgaroth, both formerly of black metal band Dark Requiem. The press release claims that this is Lutece’s second album, but my researches have revealed no traces of an earlier album, so maybe this is a mistake. In any case, this is their first album for Triple Silence, one of the music labels run by Nigel Wingrove’s Salvation Films outfit.


Ancestors… begins promisingly enough, with the sound of clashing swords and pounding war drums, but it all goes wrong when the first song gets underway. The band are aiming at epic battle metal in the style of Svartahrid, Himinbjorg or early Graveland, but their underdeveloped rehearsal-room sound just doesn’t convey much feeling of power. There’s no bottom end – whatever bass exists is inaudible, and the drum kit seems to consist entirely of cymbals and snare. ‘Dawn of Gjallarhorn’ features a braying sound which is probably intended to be a war-horn, but which bears an unfortunate resemblance to a cow in pain. ‘Alesia’ has a good trebly guitar intro, and – at last! – builds up some strength in the buzzsaw verse riffs, but the drums still sound crap. ‘Storm From Golden Hall’ benefits from keyboards bulking out the sound, ‘Blood Pride’ has a nice dirty thrash riff and is probably the best song here, but the pleasures offered by Ancestors… are few and far between. ‘Entrance to the Asgard Gate’ is enlivened by piping medieval keyboards and orchestral strings, but the drums and guitars still sound underpowered. This one reminded me a little of early Bergthron, who also had an ear for a poppy keyboard melody – however, Bergthron were a much more powerful-sounding band. Lutece’s keyboard work certainly sounds better than their guitars or drums. The bonus track ‘Denos’ is evidently the first track Lutece recorded, and is much more black metal sounding than most of the album, but horribly recorded. The drums sound like a washing machine on spin cycle, it’s hardly possible to distinguish the beats. All in all, not good – some of the worst black metal I’ve heard in a long while, in fact.