Release Date: June 16, 2017
When I first saw LLNN live last year, at one of Berlin’s last true refuges of underground punk, the crusty „Koma F“ basement located right underneath the legendary Köpi squat, I felt reminded of watching pre- TRAGEDY outfit HIS HERO IS GONE many years ago, live in Bremen: a small crowd in a small room, the musicians standing among the audience on the floor, screaming in their faces. A small crowd exposed to an assault of abrasive guitars, fierce drum fills and ferocious vocals, crashing over them like a derailed freight train… the air saturated with vented frustration, hopelessness, despair and violence… a cathartic experience for the audience as much as for the musicians. And an utterly positive one.
LLNN have that same raw, vile, cold and crushingly destructive energy that I found so attractive as a teenager slowly getting involved with hardcore punk, that made me love bands like Rorschach, Groundwork, Neurosis, Absinthe, Unbroken or Breach.
"Loss", which was recorded live in the studio, sounds so dense and overwhelming that I was surprised to learn that LLNN are a fairly new band, formed in Copenhagen in 2014 - but the members are veterans in the local hardcore and metal scene, and have played in internationally touring bands like THE PSYKE PROJECT. It is this experience that comes with the awareness that the true power of heaviness lies in simplicity: in reducing a musical idea to its (hard) core, to its essence, rather than overloading songs with trivial details that would only blur the mix.
One of the unexpected and outstanding elements on "Loss" are the apocalyptic wave synths, which take you on a journey back in time, back past NEUROSIS” „Souls At Zero“ era into the early 80s. "It took us 7 months to find the right synths for the vision we were after", comments drummer Rasmus G. Sejersen. "My brother and I saw a lot of 80s sci-fi flicks to get into the right mood. It was a great creative period."
