They Say :- Although only formed in March 2011, Lazarus Syndrome have already achieved great recognition and acclaim. The idea of the band came about in January 2011 when guitarists Mike & Jamie, both drawn to Liverpool by it’s musical heritage, sought to form a band that played something different from the host of local metal bands. Rather than trying to be ‘brutal’ and heavy for the sake of it, the duo wanted to write more melodic tunes in the vein of the Swedish death metal scene but with that extra added something.
They immediately hired drummer Dave to work on the songs, followed a couple of months later by bass player Tom and singer Pete. This was the point that Lazarus Syndrome became a reality. The band had a number of songs finished in a matter of weeks and not ones to rest on their laurels decided it was time to enter the studio to record their first E.P. In mid-April the band began work on the recording for what was to become ‘Flatline’.
We Say :- Your attention is demanded from the moment that the opening track Forsaken fires a Venom-ous salvo across your bows, a bulldozer wall of sound that clears the way before the guttural death growl kicks in. This’ll be another generic Death Metal release then…
But then, just when you think you’ve got Lazarus Syndrome sussed, the clean vocal kicks in. About 20 seconds in and it’s already fair to say that this band don’t sound quite like anyone else. I guess people who must have things in neat boxes will call them Melodic Death Metal, but in truth Lazarus Syndrome aren’t that easy to pin down.
It’s unusual to have one vocalist handling both extremes, but Peter Ford delivers everything from the most deathly of death growls to clean vocals with panache, I don’t think I’ve heard a vocalist with quite this range before and there’s no denying that the quality of the clean delivery gives things an unexpected lift.
Although Forsaken and Devoured By Conflict show the more extreme, erm, extremes of Lazarus Syndrome’s musical arsenal things take an altogether more melodic turn for A Path Less Traveled, where the band show off a much softer side to their personalities. Well for the first half anyway. It’s a song split neatly in half by a really cool little instrumental passage before things are cranked up a notch.
The E.P. draws to a close with Blameless Creator, which is something special. Here the band strike a balance between the extreme and the melodic in a track that is reminiscent of the best that the Scandinavian Melodic Death Metal scene has to offer. It strikes me as being the most (dare I say it) accessible and rounded track on here, and it just seems to have that extra something that takes good and transforms it into great, that extra hook that draws you in and refuses to let go.
In Flatline Lazarus Syndrome have delivered an extremely impressive debut, and if the first three tracks show the breadth of their talents, it’s in Blameless Creator that everything comes together nigh-on perfectly.
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