French musician Neige used to get around a lot, getting involved in all kinds of side-projects and groups. In recent years though, Alcest has been his main focus due to its increasing success and demand, leaving other acts he has touched in various states of disbandment or limbo. One former project in Lantlos however is carrying on without Neige; after all, the man pulling the strings for this project has always been German multi-instrumentalist Markus “Herbst” Siegenhort. After Neige’s departure from Lantlos following the release of 2011’s Agape, Herbst has taken over vocal duties while working on their new album Melting Sun the past two years.
Today, the first glimpse of Melting Sun has been made available, and it looks as if Lantlos is going the way of dream rock as well. While promising to be more rock and metal oriented than Alcest’s latest record Shelter, Melting Sun is free of screams and blastbeats. According to Herbst, they may return in the future, but for now the genre-wide evolution from post-rock influenced black metal and dark, cool colors towards bright, warm colors in dream rock and new wave continues with Lantlos as well.
In fact, Melting Sun‘s description on the Prophecy Productions pre-order page says just that:
Cold, urban, stark, escapist – these keywords were often attributed to the music of Lantlôs in the past. Now with the band’s fourth album “Melting Sun”, many things change on different levels: After Neige’s (Alcest) amical departure, Markus Siegenhort is solely responsible for the (by now only clean) vocals and has gathered a complete line-up for the very first time. These changes in personnel go along with a pleasant paradigm shift: Whereas in the past, the sound used to be chill and at times forbidding, “Melting Sun” paints warm, oneiric vistas in bright hues, where dream mingles with reality and all details merge into majestic entities of colour and shape.
Thus, escapism is still essential to Lantlôs’ work, albeit under reverse conditions. With their new album, the group has created a meditative dream journey with a perfect visual counterpart in artist Pascal Hauer’s impressive illustrations. “Melting Sun” turns out to be a relaxed summer record between Post Metal and Dream Rock that, although it presents the gist of Lantlôs in a new musical form, remains characteristic, profoundly honest and – most of all – enthralling.
Get a load of the new direction for yourself with the album’s opening track, ‘Melting Sun I: Azure Chimes‘ below:
Here’s the tracklist, which implies that the album will carry a universal theme or will flow as a continuous listen. Hopefully both!
1. Melting Sun I: Azure Chimes
2. Melting Sun II: Cherry Quartz
3. Melting Sun III: Aquamarine Towers
4. Melting Sun IV: Jade Fields
5. Melting Sun V: Oneironaut
6. Melting Sun VI: Golden Mind
Melting Sun will be out May 2nd through Prophecy Productions. Pre-orders can be purchased either through Prophecy or Lantlos’ official webstore.
– JR