Lustre - The Ashes of Light

First Post June 19, 2020 01:32 PM

I'd like to nominate Lustre's 2020 album, The Ashes of Light for reconsideration. As there is more black metal in a tub of Ben & Jerry's, I would like to propose that this album of ambient tweeness  is removed from The North to Non-metal.

Ben
Ben
The Fallen The Horde The North The Pit
June 25, 2020 03:22 AM

This release has been added to the Hall of Judgement. Just for the record, I personally feel that Ben & Jerry's is more black metal than Sonny92 realises.


June 25, 2020 06:34 AM

LOL, this isn't the only time black metal has taken over a popular food company...


June 25, 2020 07:02 PM


This release has been added to the Hall of Judgement. Just for the record, I personally feel that Ben & Jerry's is more black metal than Sonny92 realises.


Quoted Ben

Awesome.. TRVE KVLT Black Metal ice cream!!!


August 24, 2022 09:27 PM

This one is a really interesting one that's worthy of a bit of discussion. On the one hand this release is so obviously not a metal release in that if you took the black metal vocals away (which only appear on half of the tracklisting) you would essentially have a conventional New Age record, albeit one that seems to be very much intended for the black metal audience. On the other hand though, those vocals could only be found on a black metal release & some of this material would seem to fit pretty comfortably on a Burzum album given its conduciveness to drawing images of "Lord Of The Rings" style fantasy. But then there's also an early 80's new wave element to the overthetop synthesizer tones given that they often lack subtlety & tip toe along the borderline of cheesiness. It poses the question "Does black metal need to have guitars & black metal instrumentation?" I would suggest that the answer is YES & my inclination is to go with a YES on this Hall of Judgement entry as a result but I can't say that it's a unanimous decision as I can see the argument for going to other way too. Perhaps placing "The Ashes of Light" under Non-Metal but still allowing it into The North is a fair compromise. I'm not sure if that would cause any logistical issues but it's worth considering.

As for the album's quality, I can't say I agree with Sonny on that. If you can allow yourself to accept the musical direction that Lustre have taken then you might find that "The Ashes of Light" has a certain charm to it. It's glistening, lush, majestic & ethereal but will certainly alienate many extreme metal fans given its generally positive & uplifting tone. I don't mind some of the better New Age releases though & have even been known to thoroughly enjoy it in conjunction with a professional massage on occasion so I would guess that I'm more open to this sort of record than most grim & frostbitten black metal fans. It's disappointing that I couldn't find any pictures of corpse-painted black metallers receiving massages to post in the Hall of Judgement thread though as I would have thought someone would surely have pasted Abbath into that sort of scene at some point. I guess that fact alone tells us that this release is tailored towards a fairly niche market.

For fans of Burzum, Midnight Odyssey & Eldamar.

3.5/5


P.S. This is yet another example of why no one should ever treat RYM's genre tagging as gospel. That website is simply getting worse & worse & their audience & ever-expanding genre-tree consistently show that they know very little about the finer details of metal music. There is quite literally no Ambient or Atmospheric Black Metal on this release so those two primary genre tags are completely incorrect. Even if there was any Ambient here, surely the Black Ambient tag would be a better fit as I'm sure the audiences for those two genres would rather not see this release sitting in their charts.

August 24, 2022 10:09 PM

I'm gonna stop you right there at "these vocals can only be found on a black metal release."  Music progresses by combining elements from various influences, so even though I haven't heard this album, it seems clear that that just makes this album an unconventional ambient album.  I am very curious, hover, what albums you're thinking of when you say "better new age releases."

August 24, 2022 11:48 PM


I'm gonna stop you right there at "these vocals can only be found on a black metal release."  Music progresses by combining elements from various influences, so even though I haven't heard this album, it seems clear that that just makes this album an unconventional ambient album.  I am very curious, hover, what albums you're thinking of when you say "better new age releases."

Quoted Rexorcist

If you read my full analysis of the album I think you'll find that we're actually in agreement Rexorcist as I've ultimately voted to remove "The Ashes of Light" from any Black Metal related links but I'm not sure how you can make any sort of judgement without having heard the release in question. I think the correct tagging for this release in RYM terms would be a primary of New Age & a secondary of Black Ambient. To be clear, this isn't in any way an Ambient release. As a huge fan of Ambient music, I see a clear distinction between it & New Age music & I'd suggest that this is a New Age release. As far as some of the better New Age music goes, I'd highlight artists like Popol Vuh, Alice Coltrane & Enigma off the top of my head.

August 25, 2022 12:01 AM

Don't take this as bragging, but I've heard over 10,000 albums in the last ten years, that's how you can make a judgment.  It might not be the MOST ACCURATE judgment, but it's still an educated one, especially since .  But to be fair, I never said that you thought it was a metal album, as I guessed you had admitted to that when my eye caught the "For fans of" section, but I can see how that message would come across concerning my phrasing, so I'll admit to poor phrasing.  Basically, with enough fixation on genre differences themselves, (something at the front of my mind with all music I listen to), and with enough practice, you can form a basic idea of what the album is like in your head.  However, all I really needed in this instance was whether or not this was metal.  Hell, I'm even listening to a non-metal album by an avant-garde metal band who posted this as black metal, when it's closer to dark ambient with black ambient influences: Cycle of Emptiness by Kitties of Death, and I'm sorely disappointed in this as a market-brand ambient album with no special traits.  It's obviously pretending to be metal, and clearly isn't.  It has it moments of OK atmosphere and that's it.  22/100.  Gonna let Ben know not to include this one whenever he puts the band up here.  But that was just the example.  Basically, I can take that sound, read what people have said, audiate it with more new age attached and boom.

August 25, 2022 01:05 AM

I agree Lustre is actually much closer to New Age than Ambient. But I also think it's still Atmospheric Black Metal. It does have guitar, drums, and black metal shrieks. Those things are all just pushed back in the mix. It's in no way purely Black Metal, but I'd say Atmospheric Black Metal + New Age with influences of Ambient and Black Ambient. Since those genres aren't represented on this site it looks a little odd getting labeled as just Black Metal, BUT it still is Atmospheric Black Metal and should remain in that clan.

August 25, 2022 02:33 AM

I didn't hear any guitars on "The Ashes of Light" at all to be honest. If they were there they must have been so far back in the mix that I couldn't pick them up. The programmed drums were nothing out of the ordinary for New Age music as far as I could see so I think we'll have to agree to disagree on this one.