Lilitu, out of Georgia, the unlikely American state to produce a heavy metal band, has always maintained somewhat of a cult status for me. Their first two offerings, Earth Gods and Memorial, have been circulating underground and getting good reviews. The End Records, the label which roster I follow faithfully, has been able to sign them and The Delores Lesion is coming out this fall.

The band, or the label, insists on calling the style Lilitu plays melodic dark metal. I’d give them the right to call the style whatever they want since the music on The Delores Lesion is quite good. Who cares what the genre tag reads afterwards? Personally, however, I would say Lilitu borrows a lot of their inspiration from the melodic death metal, and Dark Tranquillity is certainly the band that put a stamp on Lilitu way of doing things metal.

The first three cuts, Only the End of the World Again, Even the Vultures Have Moved On and the title track, could certainly make the B-side of any Dark Tranquillity album anywhere between Projector and Damage Done. I would like Lilitu to take it as a compliment, not as a slight in any way. Being an enormous fan of the Swedes I was quite happy to hear that someone else is a fan as well. Fans of bands like Auberon and Insomnium would also enjoy Lilitu. Catchy aggressive machine gun riffs coexist perfectly well with beautiful steeped in minor melancholic melodies. Just like the recent era Dark Tranquillity, Lilitu also makes a good use of keyboards. The latter does not lead much (Even the Vultures Have Moved On), but rather provides another dimension making the songs fuller. The leads are memorable and glide over riffs with ease (title track).

After three tracks the band takes a brief break with short instrumental Ether … and then more diversification takes place. It is if at some sporting event, the team emerges out of the locker room after halftime having made some significant adjustments. Gothic tendencies were showing through even in the first three tracks, see some aforementioned keyboards, some clean singing and even some female spoken vocals, but Follow Through takes on gothic rock style even more so, reminding in places of Depeche Mode and Type O Negative. Further, the band even mixes some hardcore elements, both in the vocal and riff department in Desolation Bleeds and Fragments of My Reflection. Derek Bonner is much more a screamer than a growler anyway, but the latter two tracks test my hardcore tolerance boundaries. The melodies or guitar leads are not compromised in any way, but the whole thing feels much more of a forced together sum of parts than one smooth whole. To add on to the gamish, Fragments of Reflection and Dark Haired Girl include more introspective quiet piano/strings moments.

The Delores Lesion is short, but memorable and certainly deserves multiple listens in your player. Aside from the moments of hardcore vocals, and some rhythmic offs where I thought guitars and drums are not in 100% unison, it is a surprisingly good album. Lilitu composed and produced The Delores Lesion well, but what impressed me the most is the passion and emotional honesty of the band. Melodic death metal, gothic crooning, hardcore, dark metal, XYZ style, whatever Lilitu put out seemed to come from the heart and sounds very personal in both its attack and sensitive suffering.