If you are not familiar with Locrian, let me just say that they're an experimental metal trio comprised of Andre Foisy (guitars) from Albany, NY: Terrence Hannum (vocals, synthesizer, electronics) from Baltimore, MD; and Steven Hess (drums, electronics) from Chicago, IL. While their are notably based in black metal, they cross genres into dark ambient, gothic and industrial. Locrian has easily over 20 releases since 2006, and 'End Terrain' is their second on the Profound Lore label, so I would say the band is pretty well-known entity in the black metal genre, but 'End Terrain'is so much more than black metal, a concept album exposing a vision of a future earth consumed by waste.
I have to say I wasn't knocked out by the opener, "Chronoscapes," as it has all the cliches you'd hear in black metal - screamingly unintelligible vocals, riff-heavy guitar, pounding drums and noise with a hint of sub-melody synth. Things change dramatoccally on "Utopias" where Hess lays down some tribal drumming on the toms and Foisy and Hannum contribute atmospheric guitar and synth.The track has two parts - Part I - Execrations (instrumental) and Part II Ghosts Beget More Ghosts (with vocals, clean) with the GBMG part sounding like heavy post rock. My ears now definitely perked up with my interest piqued. The brief track "Umwelt" is experimental instrumental atmospherics, a set-up of sorts for "The World Is Gone, There Is No World," oozing dystopian sorrow with the angst of self-realized despoliation and the screams of despair it spawns. It abruptly stops to let in the "Excarnate Light." "We survive ourselves as spectators, on exterminated horizons, a view from nowhere...In nostalgia for the light with divine and absolute retribution, a view from nowhere." Bleak as it gets, and the band really cooks on this one.
The foreboding darkness of "Black Prisms Of Our Dead Age" is enhanced by Gordon Withers' cello, and has a dark psychedelic demeanor, as if The Church and The Cure got together to put out the ultimate black track. More dark experimental atmospherics usher in "Innenweelt" with looped synths and electronics. "In The Throes Of Petrification" begins with just the kick at about 187 bpm, then the major synth line followed by a more elaborate guitar line. Screamed vocals blend in with the music, but if you listen closely you can hear the words. Becoming more intense and noisy as it carries forward, this strikes me as the signature track on the album. Ending with "After Extinction," this is perhaps the most accessible and beautiful track on the album, even with Hannum's screaming vocals. It builds to a stellar climax that will have you saying, "Wow! I have to hear this again!" If black & goth metal enthusiasts don't fall in love with 'End Terrain' then I just don't know what this world has come to.