Liminal (adjective) –
- a. the lowest amount necessary to produce a specific effect
- b. being on a boundary or threshold, a transitional or intermediate stage between two distinct states or stages in a person’s life
(adapted from the online edition of the Oxford English Dictionary)
If I had a dollar for every time someone suggested that I might have a tendency to overthink things, I could probably retire from my job teaching college English and just be a wastrel metal journalist for the rest of my life. Still, I can’t help but think that the key to understanding Liminal, the new record from Santa Cruz black metal duo Leucosis, lies in unpacking its title. Considering the cover art, which depicts what appears to be a giant dust storm seconds before it tears through a small prairie town, my guess is that the band had the second definition of ‘liminal’ in mind when naming the album.
Musically, Leucosis’s particular take of black metal is a bit tricky to pin down. Liminal alternates between lengthy exercises in furious black metal and shorter, clean guitar-based interludes. As a result, it sounds as though it could well exist in that liminal space between the violence of the storm and the relative peace of the unsuspecting town. The two short instrumental pieces certainly have the kind of dreamy characteristics one would associate with atmospheric black metal, but the bulk of the record tends towards much harsher territory, reminding me at times of more recent (read: non-Cascadian) Ash Borer, Weakling, One Master, and even some of the Icelandic bands. It makes for a fascinating and endlessly engaging mix, and even after close to ten listens I’m still not at the point where I can predict the various musical turns each track will take.
In fact, it’s really those unexpected moments that make Liminal so successful. For example, about two minutes into opening track “Bereft,” the tremolo-picked minor chord progression gives way to a bit of lead guitar that sounds like it’s played in both a slightly different key and different time signature than the rest of the song. In some ways it reminds me of the guitar solo in Radiohead’s “Paranoid Android,” which always sounded to me like it’s deliberately pitched about a half step sharper than the song’s actual key. It’s off just enough to get the listener’s attention, but not so far off as to impact the overall euphony of the track. The opening riff to “Saturnal” might be the most melodic passage in any of the heavier tracks, but it also features some of the most chaotic passages on the record and a totally incongruous ‘power down’ ending. Closer “Manifest,” though, might well be the highlight of the record due to the way that it juxtaposes slower, borderline ambient passages with sections of unmitigated tremolos-and-blasting.
All told, Liminal is yet another outstanding entry in what has been an unbelievably good year thus far for US black metal. And aside from perhaps the new Cormorant album, it might be the record that most rewards repeated listens due to its compositional density and the sheer number of risks that Leucosis take over the course of its five tracks. Black metal fans, do not sleep on this one.
Liminal will be available in a variety of formats on September 1 via Sentient Ruin Laboratories.
