Premiere: The Lylat Continuum – “Epyon”
A band named after Star Fox singing about Gundam. What more could you want?
We’ve got a spicy one today for you prog nerds out there. The Lylat Continuum has been around since 2016, but this is their first release to my knowledge. Featuring members of The Contortionist and Last Chance to Reason, Ephemeral was written over the course of the past three years with the express intent to do something both new and accessible in the realm of prog death. If their name and album cover weren’t already indicators of their love for sci-fi, the album lyrically talks about a fatally wounded mobile suit pilot awakening in the aftermath of a brutal battle, taking a psychedelic turn in his final hour.
So why does all of that matter? Because this is an album that fucking goes places. Epyon, the third track from Ephemeral, is a 12-and-a-half minute prog epic that covers quite a lot of ground, everything from flashy arpeggios to soothing ambience and ripping blastbeats. It has the adventurous spirit of Between the Buried and Me and last year’s fantastic Luna’s Call record with the tight focus and performance of Cynic and the aforementioned Contortionist, and the touches of spacey synth over tech riffing called The Last of Lucy to mind as well. This is all in a single tune, mind you; this thing needs to be heard to really wrap your head around it.
And if you read all that and are saying aloud to your cold unfeeling monitor, “Spear, I’m not listening to nearly 13 minutes of prog wanking about weeb shit,” then all I have to say is… well, fair enough, but trust me on this one. If you like when songs take you on a journey, then you absolutely need to listen to this. It sails through its runtime with a grace that belies its length, and it’s pretty impressive that they manage to weave all these ideas together into a coherent, pleasant composition.
Ephemeral releases on February 19th
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