Lately, avant garde extreme metal has been making a noticeable presence. Of course originating out of black metal you have Arcturus and Sigh, both waving around metal conventions like mere play things of children and- for the most part- creating damn great albums with them. Then you have the more recent antics of Unexpect and Japan’s Kadenzza: the former playing around with classical elements, noise, and Finntroll-esque black metal and the latter running the gamut from prog to black metal to symphonic elements. Lux Occulta plays a very similar brand of avant garde metal, seemingly throwing in the entire kitchen sink.

And that’s exactly Lux Occulta’s problem on The Mother and the Enemy. There’s too much incompatible shit. Imagine you’re watching some porn and you feel like switching over to- I don’t know- say, a Bang Bros production. The meat heads bring in this one chick and the camera dramatically starts at her feet and goes upward, revealing her smoking, big-titted body. And you got yourself thinking, "Oh fuck yes, this is prime quality jerking mate-"

BZZZZT!

They get to her face and it’s fucking YEE-HAW time. That girl has a horse face that not even Mr. Ed (nor Mr. Hands) could love. I’m talking about serious lazy eye, buck-teeth, and a nose more hooked that a fishing angular. And to top it off, during coitus she is a horrible moaner, rambling about shit that doesn’t even make sense. And it’s not like Belladonna, where the bad teeth somehow works with the hot body; it just plain hurts.

Just as all that doesn’t mesh well with the tight body, Lux Occulta has trouble meshing the more effective styles with the non-metal ugly. At the outset of The Mother and the Enemy, the band goes for an industrial-tinged, blackened hybrid of symphonic death metal, not unlike Kadenzza (though Lux Occulta predates them). They even mess around with a few jazzier parts. And for the most part this is all fine and dandy. It’s strong and solid stuff, that is well played, tight, and most of all catchy.

Then you get to "Yet Another Armageddon" and the song writing takes a turn for the "What the Christ?" territory of song writing. The entire song is something akin to trip-hop era The Gathering, straight down to clean female vocals. Now, I’ll admit I like The Gathering and even this style of The Gathering’s music, but it doesn’t work well at all with the rest of Lux Occulta’s music. It’s too slow, too emotive, and too "smooth" to combat the rough edged madness of the rest of the album. It’s not necessarily a bad song, but it doesn’t belong here and it certainly will turn off your average "BROOOOTAL!" metal head.

And this is where The Mother and the Enemy falls apart. The album tries to balance the avant garde metal from the first half (along with more dissonant experimentation in the vein of Unexpect) with these relaxing female interludes and it’s disjointed, but not in a good way. And then even the vocals go to hell on "Pied Piper". Remember the film The Princess Bride? Remember that priest that would slur the word "love" like he was Elmer Fudd? Bingo. Elmer Fudd was apparently contacted to provide guest vocals on this song, and they injected him with a direct intravenous line to shoot him up with 100 proof alcohol. Well fuck.

This isn’t to say The Mother and the Enemy is absolute crap. The problem is it’s a diamond in the rough in the truest of senses. If you like avant garde stuff, there is definitely a lot to get out of The Mother and the Enemy, but this is entirely buyer beware. Proceed at your own risk.

Written By: Necro-tron