There’s a point at which words outlive their usefulness. A sigh can sometimes convey more meaning than a thousand word poem. And in a time where hundreds of albums have offered hundreds of words about their personal experience of our shared pandemic experience, I sometimes get worded out.
Luckily, Through the Dying Light from Boston’s Lesotho doesn’t need words to express itself. Instead, it offers up fifty minutes of crushing, mournful post metal that’s just as eloquent as the best singer-songwriter.
Lesotho formed in Boston in 2020 as a result of COVID quarantines and a shared love of heavy instrumental music. The trio quickly recorded their debut EP Summer Wars and released it in 2021 to widespread acclaim. Through the Dying Light opened up the writing process though, relaxed restrictions allowing for more live collaboration, which in turn led to explorations of different influences in a way that writing remotely can’t emulate.
Let’s be honest—as much as I love post metal, it can often feel pretty samey. Not just between songs on an album, but as a whole. Many acts seem content to offer up their best impressions of Russian Circles or Caspian and call it a day. Lesotho doesn’t suffer from this trap, though. Across its ten tracks, it offers an organic narrative, shifting between reverb-drenched atmospheres and crushing metal riffs not out of prescription to the genre’s conventions but out of cogent songwriting. Many of the songs stretch far beyond five minutes, but thanks to the expertise of their composition, no moment drags on or gets stagnant.
Instead, Lesotho uses the combined force of their instruments like a single voice to offer up sighs, groans, sobs, and roars that I think we can all relate to considering the last few years.
Through the Dying Light is available April 7th through Bandcamp.
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