Lament Cityscape – The New Wet

Label: (self-released)
Release Date: 31/01/2020

Question: what happens when you take industrial in the vein of Gnaw Their Tongues, marry it to a dash of doom metal, weld it to an overwhelming atmosphere, add dashes of synthesizers into it and give it an overall sharper edge?

Lament Cityscape’s new EP, The New Wet happens.

Lament Cityscape can best be described as metaldustrial; but, on the sliding scale of industrial metal (metal:industrial ratio) they stand at mostly industrial slightly metal. Their brand of industrial is informed by metal, sort of like a less restricted Author & Punisher, but it is not completely stripped of its roots either. The part that isn’t filled up with synthesizers and industrial noise, however, is informed primarily by doomsludge in the vein of Serpentine Path or Meth Drinker. This combination yields a heavy, heavy result in the form of pounding drums, noisy, sludgy riffs, heavy bass and industrial noise, all tied in a bow with reverb-heavy, distorted vocals.

Lament Cityscape’s main strength is in their songwriting. I am not a big fan of EPs, in fact I would rather get a full-length or nothing if I could choose, but at just 16 minutes, they make The New Wet feel like a full album. It’s because not only is the songwriting extremely tight, the three tracks flow naturally from one another into one another despite having no fade-in/fade-out connections.

See, the EP starts off with the rather interlude-ish, rather calm opener Running Out of Decay that slowly eases you into the proceedings. Then, Seepage happens. While title-wise it already proves that you have definitely not quite run out of decay, it ramps the intensity up and ends in an intense, noisy, dense crescendo. The closer of this trilogy, Borer, is the absolute piece de resistance in that it takes all the elements that have been introduced so far on the EP and marries them to an almost Drug Honkey-like, slightly psychedelic sludge assault. It’s a wonderful culmination and far as release structures go, is a definite victory.

So if you were looking for something new, something exciting, something red, The New Wet is definitely for you. It’s got thrills, chills, atmosphere, and in spades. Highly recommended.

Line-Up:
Mike McClatchey
David Small
Seanan McCullough
Peter Layman

01. Running Out of Decay
02. Seepage
03. Borer

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