The Jesus Lizard and Metz are fused together in the form of The Lumes.
The Lumes are Maxime Prins on vocals and guitar, Lennard van der Voort on bass and Mitchell Quitz on drums.
Their first release Lust started this tradition they seem to be continuing on with “Envy”. Sin is said to be something we’re supposed to avoid. The Lumes, instead, dive headfirst into the depraved world we all want but are forced to avoid for fear of judgement from either the outside or upon ourselves.
“Anguish” takes off like a sonic tonic. The manic vocals of Maxime are desperate. “Am I the only one, who knows what it is to crawl?” The drums take on this punching the wall effect. Rage wrapped itself around The Lumes. Infected them with visions of disparity. And we’re all left the watch the carnage. Bleeding seamlessly into “Slow” a more subdued Maxime is drowned out by noise until he disappears. He reemerges unfettered. His rage is gone. There’s screaming intangible nothing behind his voice. The guitars, bass and drums win out and take on an almost boastful tone. “Discharge” is like tripping over and over again over ledges into vast caverns. Each drop brings you closer to the end. Each drop is more frightening than the last. But each drop makes the end of it closer. The end of the suffering is nigh. Desperate for conformity is “Feign”. These wishes of wanting to belong are sung. The guitar is set to a higher distortion. Drums are manically banged. Like if everything is beaten hard enough we can be molded. The amply titled “Compulsion”. It takes the misery from earlier. Sets it in fire and enjoys watching it burn. The drums are tighter. The riffs are sharper. The vocals are more confident. It’s like The Lumes are synthesizing problems we literally all go through. And drag us through and we appear on the other side stronger for the experience. Ending “Envy” is a cover of Space Siren’s “Who Makes Me Try?” and proves The Lumes make take on any noise rock sound and make it completely their own.
We can scream and kick at our demons. Destroying our vocal chords. Breaking our legs. Was winning the battle against ourselves worth it? It certainly didn’t matter in the moment.
Richard Murray
POW! Magazine
