The Metal Voice
- Aug 7, 2023

London's Groovy-Metalcore LOKUST Album Release Show Review & Photos

Updated: Aug 8, 2023

The year of LOKUST – the one we have all been waiting for. Review by Rute Ferreira - August 6, 2023

All photo by Fernando Bonenfant

For the longest time, London-based Jeremy Pringsheim and Alexy Khoury have teased the metal community with short clips and videos of shredding guitar riffs and ferocious drumming. Four years ago, in collaboration with drummer Kerim "Krimh" Lechner (ex-Decapitated, currently Septicflesh), the duo released their first evidence of musical prowess, “Guiltless”. This technical, extreme metal, bigfoot received international attention with several covers posted on YouTube from all over the world.

Despite covid, and the impact it had in the music industry, these two titans persevered. Jeremy and Alexy took this time to compose and complete the line-up searching for worthy musicians. A hard task, if you ask me. Check out their material as a duet and you’ll realise whoever was to be recruited had to be inhumanly talented. But hard and impossible are not the same thing and, after a long and thorough search, drummer Euler Morais, bassist Patryk Poko and vocalist Alex da Costa completed LOKUST.

If these years of maddening anticipation weren’t enough, LOKUST made sure we didn’t rush through the album. Instead, in a seductive striptease, they exposed one track at a time, slowly revealing the brutality that was to come. This intentional delay constituted part of the album experience and reflects their unmatched attention to detail.

Finally, Friday 28th of July 2023, London-based, LOKUST self-released their debut album, ‘Infidel’. Mastered and mixed by Mark Lewis (producer of bands such as Whitechapel, DevilDriver and Deicide) this astonishingly tempestuous 11-track beast is a testimony to LOKUST creativity and musical maturity. A masterpiece playing the same field as big names, both in production and composition.

Having listened to the album back and forth since its release, I still cannot fit LOKUST in one genre. Labelling it as a groovy tech-metalcore band would be the closest I could get at this point. LOKUST created a well-rounded and robust sound anchoring catchiness on tones reminiscent of Gojira, Meshuggah, Slipknot, Lamb of God, even Korn at times, and elevated the game by capitalizing on their idiosyncratic talent.

Infidel’s blistering violence is delivered by trashy and melodic riffs, metalcore breakdowns, technically intricate drum compositions, and criminally expressive vocals. But it doesn’t end here! LOKUST go a step further and expand their notion of brutal by adding a profound atmospheric depth and tremendously introspective song writing.

A mere 7 days post its release, INFIDEL was celebrated in a monstrously engaging and emotionally charged live performance at the Boston Music Room, last Thursday 3rd of August.

Quite faithful to the entire theme and atmosphere of the album, LOKUST delivered a fiercely aggressive performance reflective of their thirst for the stage yet incredibly hypnotic and contemplative. It was, using their words, “cathartic”.

“The live experience is a big source of fuel and energy for any band and, and so spending so many years working on an album without access to that energy did contribute to the strain of things, which in turn shaped the identity of the album” – Jeremy says.

Opening up the night were UK-based bands Krysthla and Reprisal, whose energy and charisma set the tone for the unveiling of the beast. Tensions grew deeper as the stage was getting ready for LOKUST. Silence made way to ‘March’, their intro to the album. Following closely, but not entirely, the sequence of the album, LOKUST guided the audience through a journey into their sense of self. The bond between the band and audience was undeniably symbiotic. As the crowd excitement grew, LOKUST aggressiveness fed on it, and vice versa. It was surprising to see that, only 7 days after the release of the album, there was a robust sing along from the crowd. Which brought out an endearing humility and appreciation sketched on LOKUST faces. The night was undoubtedly overflowing with dopamine.

The characteristically LOKUST’s attention to detail also did not go unnoticed. The show was beyond a pure performance of their material. It was a whole experience. From the rhythmic lighting to the hauntingly atmospheric interludes, LOKUST reached their hand into our chest and slowly, but violently, owned our guts. It was a night to remember, to say the least.

For those who “feel” music and take pleasure in dissecting it to the core, LOKUST is your band. These guys are going places! They not only know what they are doing but are good at it and believe in it too. Very worthy of Bloodstock Festival, where they play New Blood stage Friday 11th August.