If lethe is equivalent to oblivion and concealment , this Greek trio’s matching name has to be making no use of self-reference, in fact quite the opposite. Same goes for the music included on ΛΗΘΗ’s first full-length 12’ LP, which appears as a tool of disenchantment and awakening. Ten tracks inspired by futilities such as daily life’s horror, religion, love, despair and the fear in which mankind is helplessly doomed to, seem like a violent watercourse, drowning everyone into its caustic, subversive depths.

Diving into the album, we come across a chaotic and ardent aggregation that crushes them ignorant lees, with a rapid shower of riffs ranging from aggressive yet murky parts (‘Πνιγερή Καταχνιά’), to some others of slighlty slower and slightly melodic perspectives, most notably ‘Αγέλη’ which evokes a rather pessimistic feel, tied with lacerated vocals eliciting feelings of loneliness and abandonement, feelings of dreams covered by a dead city’s own shadow. On the contrary, songs like ‘Ρόλος’, ‘Αξημέρωτη Νύχτα’ and  ‘Αδιέξοδο’ have this accelerating kick to them that can carry one away in the most hateful bewilderment. Generally, the speed is maintained at high levels for most of the album’s duration, with all disparate punk, crust, or even hardcore influences, being the basic component in the structure of the tracks, a flowing and hateful undercurrent that permeates the album as a whole. The constant pauses are also a necessary ingredient in order to agitate and exacerbate every impending point. On top of that, there go the screaming duets that meld with the stop-start guitar work contributing to another climactic portion,  preserving yet another challenge to the the listener.

‘Ψωραλέα Δυσανθρωπίλα’, the last and longest song on the album, is perhaps the most representative of the LP, encompassing  all of the said elements in an unwrought and dirty texture, as a gloomy and melancholic clean guitar strum bids us farewell, leaving all at the mercy of a devouring swarm of flies. Performance-wise, each member abides its role faithfully, offering a serious and targeted result in terms of composition and execution, complimented even further by the considerable production of the album. Last but not least, the LP’s total length also works to its benefit, as it just flows without getting tiresome, even for a single moment.

As a comprehensive work, ΛΗΘΗ’s raw, dark and unpretentious blackened crust will surely shake our stubborn, vertiginour inner selves. A rising underground force contented to lure everyone eager to join the band’s torturous escapades. Will you now choose to stay in ‘oblivion’?