Born as a solo instrumental project of New Zealander Mike Lamb, since 2014 Lysithea have become a duo with the arrival of Mike Wilson, Lamb’s partner in the excellent Sojourner. In the last three full lengths, then, the melodic death doom of the Dunedin band has taken on a better defined physiognomy and also more attractive for a restricted market as the one concerning these sounds. Star-Crossed shows a remarkable mastery in handling the matter by virtue of a series of songs in which the teachings of the best bands in the field come together, even if, as often happens, those who come from Oceania tend to look more to the American school rather than the European one, and so it is mainly Daylight Dies to serve as an ideal reference point. It’s also true that Lysithea’s sound, in this mixture, often feeds more on melodic death than on gothic doom and this gives the whole a good usability that doesn’t go at the expense of a melancholic pace, which is accentuated starting from the instrumental Celeste and strengthened with its last tracks Unearthly Burial and Fever Dream seeing an increase in the drama of the sound. Star-Crossed is a mature and impeccable work from all points of view, and could be the ideal work to bring the name of Lysithea definitively to the attention of European fans.

2019 – Rain Without End Records