Hey there, tech fiends. It's that time of the week again. Before we dive into today's focus, here's the usual weekly reminder that if you're looking for even more sick bands to hear, all prior editions of this series can be perused here.
It's hard to believe we're just a few weeks away from the end of 2021. Before we get to that point, I'll have one more column next week and a year in review wrap up as usual in two weeks. In spite of all that, a number of early 2022 releases have already been announced, one of which is the second album from California natives The Last Of Lucy. The group will release Moksha on February 18th through the always excellent folks over at Transcending Obscurity Records.
We've got the exclusive premiere for you today of a new single called "Ritual Of The Abraxas". The song was apparently inspired in part by "Middle-Earth: Shadow Of War” rewritten into our own storyline of battling & absorbing souls of an adverse deity." As a big fan of The Lord of the Rings, I'm cool with that but it wouldn't mean much one way or the other if the music wasn't sick. In any other scenario, one might say "fortunately it's great" or something like that but as a longtime fan of The Last Of Lucy, the song we're launching today is just another piece of a damn great discography from a band with a lot to offer.
For those unfamiliar with the band, their origins were more as a solidly mathcore-focused act in the beginning, over time becoming an unhinged and eclectic hybrid fusing technical death metal, mathcore, and a smattering of electronica and progressive music elements together. In a sense, the music on "Ritual Of The Abraxas" and Moksha as a whole, does feel like a continuation of the sound found on their prior album from 2017, Ashvattha. I'd argue that Moksha features some new growth and change by focusing more on being concise, becoming a more brutal and blunt force of nature, and upping the aggression to new heights. Whereas on Ashvattha the extensive electronic music and saxophone-led experimentation featured heavily into what that album was all about.
In many ways, the group has been in the place they are now for almost a decade, occupying their own lane, and "Ritual Of The Abraxas" is a fine showcase of what The Last Of Lucy is capable of. So be sure to check out "Ritual Of The Abraxas" below. Pre-orders can be placed here and here. If you're new to the band, I'd highly recommend that you check out all their prior efforts as they're all fucking fantastic and quite unique. For now, you can also follow the group over on Facebook and Instagram.
