Lost Inside - Hearts Will Grow Heavy

It seems that my love for Lost Inside grows each time I get another album by them. In the year 2011, Lost Inside did a Devin Townsend-type move where they released multiple albums, but each of them having a totally different sound. For those of you that haven’t read my review on their other 2011 album, Mourning Wept Beside Me, I suggest that you read (and at least try to) listen to that first before continuing into this review. BUT FOR THOSE OF YOU THAT ARE LOOKING FOR SOMETHING CLEANER AND LESS NOISY, this is an amazing album that combines Lost Inside’s depressive black metal (DBM) artistry with EXTREMELY melodic clean guitar riffs that is backed by slower, simpler drumming and clean vocals (aka singing). If you ask me, I couldn’t possibly think of a better pair of DBM albums to be released by the same band in the same year.

I’m going to be honest that I’m much fonder of Mourning Wept Beside Me, but I’ve been listening to Hearts will Grow Heavy so much lately that I can’t help but tell the world about it! I’m going to start this off by doing some comparing of the two 2011 Lost Inside records. First off, in Mourning Wept Beside Me, the entire sound of the music has a really hazy and almost mushy sound that could be described as a droning ambience of heavily distorted guitars that have a soft fuzz to it with the vocals being more in the background trying to find its way through the thick fog of the music instead of being the loudest thing. In Hearts Will Grow Heavy, the sound is much farther from that foggy/atmospheric sound and has a much cleaner and crisper sound to it. In other words, you can hear each instrument perfectly; there isn’t any “droning”. Also, Mourning Wept Beside Me is almost completely melancholic DBM, as opposed to this album, which is primarily made up of clean electric guitar riffs played (surprisingly) in major keys, giving the music an extremely melodic and peaceful sound.

I really want to tell you what song to look up first because I want you to have the ABSOLUTE BEST first impression with this album. The song that I want you to look up is the title track (the last song on the album). The song starts out with the PERFECT example of those melodic guitar melodies that are up-beat and almost happy sounding because of the major keys that they’re played in. After a while of just hearing the guitar and drums, you hear the atmospheric keyboard backgrounds fading in, which only multiply the beauty of the music. Then, out of nowhere (I sure as hell wasn’t expecting this) you start to hear SINGING VOICES! Now before you let that turn you away, the singing isn’t front and center; it’s in the background, leaving the guitar still at the front. Of course, just like any perfect Lost Inside song, you get a nice strong, thick taste of the melodic depressive black metal that these guys have the ability to create.

Once again, the vocals are beyond professional quality. Unfortunately there are so many black metal vocalists that (in my opinion) embarrass the genre itself with the sounds that escape their mouths. It’s even more unfortunate when the music is good! Some of those bands include A Cloud in Circle, Drown in Solitude, and Demonic Forest. But in Lost Inside’s case, the vocals are above and beyond. Honestly, I couldn’t ask for anything more than what Lost Inside has already put into the masterpiece known as Hearts Will Grow Heavy. I would give this 20/20.