A solid entry in the regular-assed death metal category is Tyranny, the debut full-length from Phoenix Arizona’s Lago. Lago eschew both the processed-to-shit trappings of modern tech-death and the ever-popular, retro-as-fuck, early-nineties death metal sound. Instead Lago draws primary influence from turn of the century-era Morbid Angel in all its earth-heaving glory.
THE GOOD: Tyranny boasts a professional-grade sound, that is suitably massive and menacing, but one not entirely bereft of the human touch. The drums, for all the blasting and double-bass pounding, still have a little warmth and natural rattle, the bass guitar is occasionally audible, and the guitars, while anvil-heavy, are not layered so thick as to become indistinct. All of this serves, in the best of ways, to remind one that Lago is a group of four real dudes playing death metal. And those four dudes play death metal pretty well. The music, though nuanced, is not by today’s standards particularly technically demanding, but Lago attacks the material with a will, giving every impression of being a formidable and cohesive unit. The solos are particularly noteworthy; both deftly played and deftly composed, they serve as songs within songs and provide the perfect melodic contrast to the band’s sledge-hammer riffing. That is not to say that melody on Tyranny is entirely absent outside of the guitar solos: “Reckoning”, for instance, features some layered tremolo riffs some chiming, subtly dissonant chords that send an icy, Scandinavian wind blowing across this desert death metal.
THE NOT-SO –GOOD: Tyranny ultimately buckles under the weight of too much slow-to-mid-paced material. With the most of the album slogging along with little variance in pace, the songs tend to run together, and I find my attention invariably wavering long before the album’s fairly trim, forty minute running time is up. Furthermore, and most damning, Tyranny suffers from a complete dearth of A-grade riffs. Lago hits for average, not for power: plenty of base hits, a few doubles and triples, but the band never hits one out of the park, and it’s a god-damned shame.
CONCLUSION: Lago clearly has some talent, and Tyranny is an enjoyable, if not totally fulfilling listen. If Illud Divinum Insanus made you miss Steve Tucker, the album is definitely worth checking out, but a little more variety and a few prime riffs could have given it a broader appeal. As-is, Tyranny is a slightly above-average affair.
