Album Review: Luminous Vault - Animate The Emptiness
Reviewed by Sam Jones
With an ethereal album cover the likes of which Luminous Vault have utilised for their debut album, this quickly grabbed my attention. Its worth mentioning that this record has likely been in the works for some time now, something the band have been dearly awaiting. Formed back in 2015 out of New York, United States, Luminous Vault are a curious mash up of death, black and industrial metal that look to craft some extreme metal that may be somewhat unique; its not everyday you see Industrial mixed with death and black metal together. Their first EP Communion released in the same year, with a following EP releasing in 2017 titled Charismata. But after their second EP, Luminous Vault went very quiet and released absolutely nothing for the next five years, or so it would appear before they announced the upcoming release of their debut full length work. Animate The Emptiness sees a mid-May release date and is fronted by a rather psychedelic looking album art to boot as well. With such an unusual band and a style that juts out from the rest, let’s take an inquisitive peek at Luminous Vault’s first major release in years.
Well, this has to be one of the most unusual introductions to an extreme metal album I’ve heard in a while: utilising what sounds like a dance rhythm before unloading a classic black metal-sounding riff that really manages to evoke sensations of unease and misshapen evil. There’s a huge level of bass that goes into this record, if you listen to what the double bass drums are able to infer it’s striking how strong their pounding is. Returning to that dance/industrial aspect of the band’s songwriting, the drums do sound like you’re outside a nightclub and can interpret the far-off sound as pummelling techno. The bass is so compact and rounded out that it does thump like a club beat, it’s an odd thing to say regarding an extreme metal album but the band somehow make it work when it’s applied to the rest of their songwriting.
As you’ll recognise throughout this album, conventional songwriting isn’t exactly on Luminous Vault’s agenda. The band employ Industrial elements into their sound but it’s not along similar lines as Rammstein or Fear Factory would approach their own songwriting, here Luminous Vault use the industrial style to craft something that’s much more urban and down to earth instead of the mechanical or robotic. Hence why I deemed their left-field sound akin to a club, they make use of the thumping beat that we’ve heard before. But it oddly works I think due to how familiar we are to that tone, it’s something we can easily recognise anywhere because most of us know what a club sounds like and so it doesn’t sound as jarring or obviously industrial as other bands may purport to showcase. It’s rather straightforward to acknowledge it’s existence and since it isn’t vying to shove itself in your face, it bleeds well into the background effectively, establishing itself as a secondary bass line that you won’t think twice over.
With this said, it’s important to remember the style of riffs and songwriting that Luminous Vault do give us. The band’s approach to riffs is one that is rather segmented and doesn’t rely on great swathes of guitar strumming or soloing to bring their audience to attention. It’s the unusual electronic soundscape that draws us in, the riffs are merely the cherry on top. It’s very well paced, considering that we only get seven full tracks here and most are around 6 or so minutes long. There’s a macabre sense of evil that flows through the record but it’s not like the band are racing through the record to keep instilling this notion, they clearly take their time because time and effort has obviously gone into their songwriting; you simply can’t fluke your way through writing something like this. Each riff and turn of the songwriting is painstakingly devised to illicit the audience’s reaction and engagement. Riffs can be cerebral, they can be crushing, they may be formed of multiple swivels and hooks or they can be singular notes that come one after the other. There may also be brief explosions of power coupled by blast beats that then dissipate into the much steadier pacing. Nothing is forever with this record, and so the band are always leaving us guessing. If there’s anything you can say about Luminous Vault, it’s that they aren’t predictable.
But what most surprised me with this record was how they’ve been able to incorporate all these unorthodox elements and fuse them together into something that manages to be more than other band’s outputs have been lately. At first you’ll view this record as a strange one, trying to work out what Luminous Vault are about but soon enough it’ll click. There’ll come a point where you just get it, and what Luminous Vault have managed to create is an album that can be simultaneously heavy yet uplifting. The industrial aspect is here and can’t be ignored, and I’m glad for that too. Since the industrial side of the band allows us to reminiscence a sound we’ve all heard, it enables the integration into a harsher sound to be much easier and comes with less backlash. It’s bizarre how they were able to implement such a polar opposite ideal into their songwriting and give it a warranted purpose, to the point where removing it would deeply harm the way we perceive the band’s sound. It’s an oddball, but it’s an oddball you’ll grow to appreciate.
In conclusion, this album ended up impressing me. When that dance-aesthetic first came into play, my thoughts became immediately pessimistic regarding where I thought this album would go. But with each ensuing song, Luminous Vault kept unveiling what they had in store for me. At a certain point I began to realise what they were about and what they were trying to accomplish, because the elements they’ve brought together are not the easiest to render seamless. Listening to this album at first is like thinking you’re going to encounter a dragon and instead it’s this weirdly constructed cryptid that you can’t work out, but the more you observe the greater sense it makes as you only keep approaching it. Animate The Emptiness doesn’t hold your hand nor does it try and explain its existence or the reasoning behind its songwriting choices, it merely Is. It’s up to us to decipher its worth and frankly I can see people being divided on it, but for those who can’t stay away from it they’ll be the clique that will truly appreciate what Luminous Vault have attempted.
