When an album contains just three tracks and yet still clocks in at almost forty minutes you know that there is a serious ambition at work. Lustre’s album, ‘glimpse of glory’ is such an album, an overblown, symphonic monstrosity that opens with the sound of a raging hurricane that segues into an icy orchestral track that could as easily be the soundtrack to your cremation as it could be an anthem of praise to whatever unholy forces motivate this worryingly talented group.
Such is the scale that this band work on that it takes a full four minutes before vocals enter into the mix and when they do they are closer to the sound of snarling animals than identifiably human sounds. Deeply unsettling, the closest reference point is the output of Burzum following Varg Vikernes’ imprisonment for murder whereupon the band’s output necessarily became entirely synth driven due to the lack of stringed instruments in jail. Sitting somewhere between that man’s twisted vision and the endurance-test drone of Sunn 0))), this is an album that needs to be heard several times to truly let the elements sink in, each listen offering up more detail and depth and encouraging further exploration. Track 2 (helpfully entitled II 2) opens with a colossal drone before distant drums and guitars enter the mix (albeit buried in the mix behind the overpowering sound of the synths throwing out huge, quasi-orchestral sounds) bringing to mind the early work of Ulver and imbuing the whole thing with an icy feel that is only accentuated by the crying of wolves which closes the track.
Track 3 (III 3) is a beautiful ambient work that recalls elements of Dead can dance and latter-day Ulver (‘shadows of the sun’ era) complete with bird song and a mellow feel that is the perfect balm after the harrowing horror of the previous two tracks. At thirteen minutes, it is a lengthy coda for any album, but here nothing sounds forced or over-long, rather the length of the track balances out the darkness that you find yourself embroiled in.
Ultimately the genius that Lustre possess is that they have created an epic, sweeping masterpiece that is all their own. While reference points can be found, that doesn’t detract from the fact that this epic music journey is a unique testament to the talent of the musicians involved and it steps far from the traditional boundaries of black metal to create something undeniably special. While it is without doubt that this is music for a select few – certainly you’ll not hear anything from this remarkable album on the radio(!) – one can only imagine that Lustre are not unduly concerned by such matters as commercialism. This is an album that you will treasure long into the future. Remarkable.
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