Lexicon Devoid of Light 12″

I would recommend blasting this one on a Monday morning—which is exactly what I am doing now, perhaps against my better judgement—as, not only will it wake you up efficiently if abruptly, but it will allow you to mentally pogo your way to Christmas and make the week more bearable. Iron Lung has been very busy in 2022 with no less than 27 new releases (which is more than the average number of baths a French person takes in a year), and LEXICON’s LP would be my favourite of the bunch. This Seattle band is seriously ferocious and relentless. The most immediately striking things about this work lie in the contagious energy of the songs, and the level of distortion which one would rightly associate with classic Kyushu noise punk or modern crasher hardcore—saying that LEXICON’s sound is close to ZYANOSE covering GAI in D-CLONE’s practice space is not irrelevant. However, in terms of songwriting and structures, I think LEXICON is significantly closer to USHC than they are to an Osaka distortion fest, especially since the music is crust-free (perhaps bands like NERVESKADE or SEX DWARF should come into the equation). I suppose Devoid of Light would probably appeal to all hardcore crowds, and the implacable intensity and furiousness make up for the work’s relative shortness and lack of really catchy hooks (I’m being picky here). I love the vocals as I think they convey seething anger very well, and they remind me of Jorge’s from the CASUALTIES, which I am sure is not what LEXICON’s singer was going for but there you go. A solid ear-splitting hardcore release with brilliant punk-as-fuck artwork, too. Europe soon?

• Reviewer Romain Basset
• Label Iron Lung
• Issue MRR #475 • December 2022