Review: Lair Of The Minotaur ‘I HAIL I’
The return of Chicago’s Lair Of The Minotaur has been a long time coming, having been in relative silence since 2010’s excellent Evil Power record – seriously, find Let’s Kill These Motherfuckers and tell me that’s not one of the best tracks of that decade – and they are bringing us a whole new album, I Hail I, of their thrash-infused doomy sludge. I Hail I is out now through the band’s own The Grind House Records, and I really hope it has the brawn to stand up to the expectations we’ve all quietly built for sixteen years.
The first time I ever heard Lair Of The Minotaur was all the way back in 2004, and I remember being amazed at just how heavy Carnage was at the time, completely uncompromising in its doomy-sludgy/thrashy attack. To find this kind of band on Southern Lord was a bit of a surprise, as they seemed far too aggressive and fierce for that label’s more experimental early days.
I became a fan very quickly, but after 2010 they kind of dropped off my radar completely. When I saw I Hail I coming out, I immediately revisited some of their back catalogue to see how it compared, and I can safely say that this new offering is exactly what you would be looking for in a modern Lair Of The Minotaur record. Massive riffs, pure aggression, and that’s just the opener Emperor Of Dis. This is a record built on brawn and fury, like High on Fire if Matt Pike was loaded on amphetamines.
sounds like the frantic clash of iron in the depths of bloody hand-to-hand combat…
Enthroned On Violence has this incredible Neanderthal chug to it, while vocalist Steven Rathbone does his best Lee Dorian-with-a-sore-throat roar, which even has a dose of Jaz Coleman about it too, whether on purpose or not. Uncompromisingly heavy and straightforward, the likes of Fucked Inside Out and Saturnus Reign are proof positive the trio have lost nothing in the intervening decade and a half, and in fact may even be more gritty and ferocious than ever.
However, it is their more experimental moments on I Hail Ithat are the real treats, such as the electronic, industrial crawl of Vulture Worship, and their cover of the haunting Family Tree by southern gothic folk singer Ethel Cain is incredibly atmospheric yet still bone-crunchingly heavy. The finale Tartarus Apocalypse feels like closing a chapter of an epic, despite the album clocking in at barely over thirty minutes, which is an amazing achievement in itself.
Lair Of The Minotaur have one gear, and that is full throttle Greek mythology battle metal in the purest sense of the term. This record sounds like the frantic clash of iron in the depths of bloody hand-to-hand combat, stripped of all fancy glory and cut right back to the hacked bones. I Hail I is fast and furious, slow and sludgy; everything you’d expect and yet there is space for something more if you peel back enough bloodstained armour. I’m so happy to see them back at full strength, and you should be too.
Label: The Grind-House Records
Band Links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Instagram
Scribed by: Sandy Williamson
