Her
name is Ήβη
(Heve). She is the goddess of youth; the daughter of Zeus and Hera; the
cupbearer of ambrosia for the gods of Mount Olympus. She is eternal youth. But
now, as her persona is cracking, she must search for the black star in the sky.
She will become madness, maddened and “A
Subtler Kind Of Light” is her story. It is a four song tragedy of the
predetermined fall to the Law of Logos; a rebellion of the heart against
reason; a war of body against mind; the defiance of God by man.
Ήβη is also the creation of a
demiurge that goes by the name Helm.
She embodies the creation that becomes aware of its existence; the painted
figurine that rebels against the artist. As the stage is set, and as we
understand ourselves in relation with her, separate from the world and in war
with it, we follow her journey to freedom. The birth of self-consciousness is, after
all, the seed of tragedy and those who must know freedom must walk the path to
death.
Is
it that we see injustice where there is justice? Is it that we see chaos where
there is order? For every sentient being must take the path to know one self. Ήβη, the goddess. Ήβη, the creation. Ήβη, the martyr must fall before
her creator. Nameless is she, Ήβη.
Not a goddess, but a woman that denied her youth and with “Light” she departs.
The
striking and lasting impression of these four (three to be precise, and you’ll
know why by the end of this review) songs is the composition of seemingly
unrelated themes; riffs that pierce through the deviant structures of notes
that spark in an unorderly, illogical fashion. The lead guitars are the soul,
the humane entity behind the endeavor of narrating such a story as they speak
through emotions that explode with compassion and kindness through the solos of
Ayloss (Spectral Lore, Divine
Element) and Helm. The rhythms
of Vorksaath (Zemial) on the drums work complimentary, pushing the songs and
keeping them cohesive without stealing the attention from the impressive range of
Nick’s performance. And I say
performance because he plays two roles – the narrator, the God – The narrator
is telling the story of silent Heve as she departs, explaining to the audience
the reasons behind her rebellion, and showing us with pictures of esoteric
struggle, the climbing to the “Pillar”
that leads to her final Judgement and “Fall”
before the all-knowing God. Lastly, “Flight”
is closing the tragedy leaving the stage empty of every character and every environment,
and with ambience and sounds we accept her death.
“A Subtler Kind
Of Light” is
first and foremost a tragedy and it succeeds in praising the human spirit and
the human ingenuity. It also succeeds in communicating the limitations of the
human entity, both within the story and without it.
As
a character and as a creator that walks a path of rebelling and discovering one’s
own true nature that inevitably leads to death, Locust Leaves are stretching their branches higher. What once were
a few branches just above the ground is now becoming a full, mature, artistic
project. -
“A Subtler Kind
Of Light” is
not only a monument to tragedy. It is also a monument to progressive metal.
