Produced by Grant Luhrs and Leicohtica
Released: 2007
Leicohtica’s first EP was a shambolic mishmash of hackneyed ideas barely cobbled together with some underdone production. When I saw them live they didn’t seem much better, coming across like – to paraphrase an old friend of mine – a lot of things moving without getting anywhere. Almost two years later this Wagga seven-piece delivered this full length album. The ideas on The Balance of Fire are still far from their own, but the delivery has improved by orders of magnitude.
The album opens with an intro piece that’s little more than a bell tolling, an idea that’s so overused it’s not even a cliché anymore and from here Leicohtica moves into more familiar territory but at least they’re now exploring it with a little more skill. The vocals and arrangements were what really let them down before and it’s something they’ve certainly worked on since their roughshod debut. Ditto for the songwriting, which while still taking very heavy cues from Cradle of Filth and Dimmu Borgir, now has far more cohesion. Only two songs (“Dark Autumn Rain” and “Black Widows, White Lullaby”) reappear from the previous release, and both have been tweaked sufficiently to fit into the frame in which the band now stands. Most importantly, the use of three vocalists by any band is a difficult trick to juggle but this time around Leicohtica has managed to pull it off, with Chris Orchard and Jennifer McAffrie’s both much stronger than previously.
Musically, Leicohtica presents a mixture of melodic symphonic black metal and Gothic aspects, with some outstanding bass playing evident, highlighted particularly in the acoustic passages. The production is also strong. In the end, The Balance of Fire is a giant step up for Leicohtica.
Released: 2007
Leicohtica’s first EP was a shambolic mishmash of hackneyed ideas barely cobbled together with some underdone production. When I saw them live they didn’t seem much better, coming across like – to paraphrase an old friend of mine – a lot of things moving without getting anywhere. Almost two years later this Wagga seven-piece delivered this full length album. The ideas on The Balance of Fire are still far from their own, but the delivery has improved by orders of magnitude.
The album opens with an intro piece that’s little more than a bell tolling, an idea that’s so overused it’s not even a cliché anymore and from here Leicohtica moves into more familiar territory but at least they’re now exploring it with a little more skill. The vocals and arrangements were what really let them down before and it’s something they’ve certainly worked on since their roughshod debut. Ditto for the songwriting, which while still taking very heavy cues from Cradle of Filth and Dimmu Borgir, now has far more cohesion. Only two songs (“Dark Autumn Rain” and “Black Widows, White Lullaby”) reappear from the previous release, and both have been tweaked sufficiently to fit into the frame in which the band now stands. Most importantly, the use of three vocalists by any band is a difficult trick to juggle but this time around Leicohtica has managed to pull it off, with Chris Orchard and Jennifer McAffrie’s both much stronger than previously.
Musically, Leicohtica presents a mixture of melodic symphonic black metal and Gothic aspects, with some outstanding bass playing evident, highlighted particularly in the acoustic passages. The production is also strong. In the end, The Balance of Fire is a giant step up for Leicohtica.
- Intro: A Prelude to Chaos
- Never
- Where Daemons Conspire
- A Prototype Soul
- The Balance of Fire
- Interlude: Broken in Time
- Dark Autumn Rain
- Beneath Torn Glass
- A Rose for the Dead
- Black Widows White Lullaby
- Brother Nosferatu
- The New Design
- Outro: A Final Dirge
Rating: 72%
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