The Greatest Thing to Come Out of Hamilton - A Review of Lutharo's Hiraeth

There aren't a lot of beautiful things coming out of the rather desolate industrial city of Hamiltion, Ontario in Canada. Forge FC deserves to be mentioned as this team has won four out of five championships of the Canadian Premier League. The city's hockey team, The Hamilton Bulldogs, are actually playing in Brantford now and their football team, The Hamiltion Tiger-Cats, doesn't only have the most ridiculous name in the league but its last Grey Cup victory actually dates back to the last millennium. Perhaps you should go watch a soccer game for a change to witness an honourable team. The other great thing to come out of Hamilton is actually melodic death metal quintet Lutharo, previously known as Lutharö and Incarnadine. I have been blessed to see this wonderful band in concert twice in the last twelve months and the band has left a significant positive impression upon me. I have never seen such an enthusiastic band as every single member of the band was constantly smiling and clearly enjoying itself on stage. No matter how short the time on stage is or how many fans are in attendance, the members of Lutharo are humbly grateful to do what they love for a living.

This incredible joy also translates to the band's first full length effort Hiraeth. The band plays passionate melodic death metal and incorporates inspirations from numerous other genres such as pop music vocal lines, thrash metal riffs and even black metal rhythm sections in the group's gloomiest moments.

The group's musicianship is absolutely stellar. The drum play is energetic, fast and varied enough to impress from start to finish. The bass guitar is pleasantly involved in the band sound as it provides euphorious rhythms forming the solid backbone of the group's musicianship. The guitar play is impressive as it varies fluidly between gritty riffs flirting with extreme metal territory and outstanding melodic solos that would make any guitar player in a heavy or power metal band jealous.

An entire paragraph deserves to be dedicated to singer Krista Shipperbottom who is one of the world's greatest melodic death metal vocalists. Her passionate screams send shivers down the spine and provide the cherry atop the excellent musicianship. Her energy is so liberating that it puts a bright smile upon the listeners' faces. Her clean vocals are also executed flawlessly. She sounds unique, powerful and memorable at once. Most contemporary pop singers can't compete with her stunning range. Many other melodic death metal vocalists are either unable to perform screams as well as she does or fail to deliver the goods in the clean vocal department. Even popular singers in the genre such as Angela Gossow, Vicky Psarakis and Alyssa White-Gluz don't have her energy, fluidity, passion, range and versatility. They should attend a concert of this band, take notes and be inspired by the talent of this remarkable singer.

The songwriting also deserves its own paragraph. Lutharo manages to find the perfect mixture between atmospheric, experimental and progressive ideas and its own charismatic sound based upon energy, melody and passion. Hiraeth thus sounds consistent from start to finish and no fillers are to be found on this stunning debut album.

There are several songs that however manage to stand out in particular. Opening anthem "To Kill or to Crave'' unites all aforementioned elements that make this band so amazing in five breathtaking minutes that invite to press the repeat button right away. The free-spirited, liberating and rebellious "Worship Your Path" combines energetic musicianship with inspired lyrics offering food for thought and discussion. Closing epic "Lost in a Soul" is my personal favourite on this output as it cracks the seven-minute mark but doesn't include one single unnecessary second. This is contemporary melodic death metal with energy, harmony and intellect at its very best.

The final result is crowned by a wonderful production that sounds organic, powerful and uplifting from start to finish. It's remarkable that the engineers and producers managed to pull off such a remarkable result despite a fairly modest budget.

The only reason why this album doesn't get an even better rating is because its successor Chasing Euphoria is even better and because this band has the potential to become the greatest melodic death metal band on the planet.

Lutharo thus deserves more attention, recognition and respect. I sincerely hope that my review helps the band to become just a tiny little bit more popular. The group certainly deserves this. Start your discovery of this wonderful band with its promising debut record Hiraeth that offers ten songs with a perfect total running time of forty-seven minutes.

Final rating: 85%