Lunatic Medlar
Finely Tuned Machine
Independent Release
2013
Lunatic Medlar is a side project which features members from Tardive Dyskinesia, Universe 217 and Sun of Nothing, three of the most interesting Greek bands around today. “Finely Tuned Machine” is their first album which ventures in atmospheric metal paths and manages not to get lost in long and tiring, introvert parts where the band does nothing but show off how well they can play their instruments.
Lunatic Medlar have managed to combine doom with hard and heavy but at the same time extra groovy riffs and managed to produce a pretty good record that one can listen to throughout without being bored once. Not an easy thing to achieve, if you take into consideration that only two of the eight tracks have vocals here. Lunatic Medlar sounds, as the name of the album suggests, like a “Finely Tuned Machine”, composing extra heavy but at the same time melodic and elaborate musical pieces. I heard the album four of five times, and not just to review it, but because I really enjoyed the skillful mixture of musical genres that it offers without forcing or overplaying any of them.
The thing that I really enjoyed about Lunatic Medlar is that their art isn’t focused on extra difficult to play guitar riffs, bass lines or drum rhythms. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that anyone who has ever picked up a guitar and/or bass or sat behind a drum set can ever dream of playing any of their stuff without years of practicing. But their chords aren’t complicated just for the sake of it; it’s the way the (sometimes even basic) melodies are melted together that makes the result interesting.
The tracks that really stand out in my opinion are “At Lust”, “Blob”, “Oceania” and “Old Is the New New”. To be perfectly honest, there is one song that I didn’t really care for. That was “The End of the Sun” which I found it didn’t contribute anything to the album as a whole. Furthermore, I think the vocals actually take something away from this particular track, instead of adding to it.
The band notes that “Finely Tuned Machine” is the sort of album that Mastodon, Baroness, Keelhaul and Zozobra fans will enjoy, but I think this doesn’t do justice to the record. I think anybody who is into good hard heavy stuff is going to love this album.
PS: Listen to the album & get it for free here.
Lunatic Medlar have managed to combine doom with hard and heavy but at the same time extra groovy riffs and managed to produce a pretty good record that one can listen to throughout without being bored once. Not an easy thing to achieve, if you take into consideration that only two of the eight tracks have vocals here. Lunatic Medlar sounds, as the name of the album suggests, like a “Finely Tuned Machine”, composing extra heavy but at the same time melodic and elaborate musical pieces. I heard the album four of five times, and not just to review it, but because I really enjoyed the skillful mixture of musical genres that it offers without forcing or overplaying any of them.
The thing that I really enjoyed about Lunatic Medlar is that their art isn’t focused on extra difficult to play guitar riffs, bass lines or drum rhythms. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that anyone who has ever picked up a guitar and/or bass or sat behind a drum set can ever dream of playing any of their stuff without years of practicing. But their chords aren’t complicated just for the sake of it; it’s the way the (sometimes even basic) melodies are melted together that makes the result interesting.
The tracks that really stand out in my opinion are “At Lust”, “Blob”, “Oceania” and “Old Is the New New”. To be perfectly honest, there is one song that I didn’t really care for. That was “The End of the Sun” which I found it didn’t contribute anything to the album as a whole. Furthermore, I think the vocals actually take something away from this particular track, instead of adding to it.
The band notes that “Finely Tuned Machine” is the sort of album that Mastodon, Baroness, Keelhaul and Zozobra fans will enjoy, but I think this doesn’t do justice to the record. I think anybody who is into good hard heavy stuff is going to love this album.
PS: Listen to the album & get it for free here.