Lago are a US death metal band and this is their third album.
Lago had a series of strong releases, (2014’s Tyranny, a 2016 split with Calm Hatchery, and 2018’s Sea of Duress), but it’s been a looooong time since then. Which is why, when the 42-minute Vigil appeared, it carried no small amount of expectation along with it.
Vigil contains seven tracks of hideously dark death metal. Riddled with dissonant fevers and racked with suffocating pains, it’s a shambling horror that hungrily crawls ever forward, imbued with nothing but lethal intent. As starting reference points for Vigil, think bands like Escarnium, Gorguts, Immolation, Morbid Angel, Phrenelith, and the like.
Lago carve out contorted riffs with jagged blades of pure blackness, propelling the music relentlessly forward. The songs are brutal and ugly, while also smothering the landscape with claustrophobic atmospheric weight. Occasionally the music erupts into sprays of arterial red as a bright solo tears through the nightmare darkness, before disappearing back into oblivion once more. The vocals seem to ooze out of the murk, more secreted than vocalised. The quality, varied drumming makes an impression too.
The songwriting is not based around hooks, but over time Vigil reveals that it’s not without its memorability. It’s music that needs to be felt and experienced as a whole package. This allows Lago to build horrific structures in your mind and them smash them down with impunity. Within this though, certain riffs, rhythms, or melodies stick in the brain further and deeper than others, making Vigil a rewarding record to explore over time and get to know. Alongside this too is the fact that sometimes they just unleash such a murderous groove that you can’t help but be floored by it.
For fans of death metal that twists and turns with crushing malevolent grace and writhes with venomous power, Vigil is a record that demands the attention. Lago’s latest is really enjoyable, providing otherworldly dissolution and coherence of death metal structures in equal measure.
Very highly recommended.
Wonderbox Metal 