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From the title alone of its new EP, Death and Evil Beasts, you get a feeling of where this six-song affair is going: This ain’t no Taylor Swift.
Clocking in at around 20 minutes, the disc covers a lot of ground, musically. The old-school punk noise of “Tower of Flies” quickly morphs into Slayer-style thrash metal before launching into Dethklok territory. “Power Goat” even delves into At the Drive-In and Refused ground.
A gentle piano ballad opens “The Unkindness of Ravens,” although one can feel things aren’t going to stay so pretty. Sure enough, what feels like a minute-long scream tears into a drum-heavy power anthem with a formidable guitar solo.
It’s a harsh, guttural effort, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t hooks to sink your teeth into. Beneath the barbed cries and rip-roaring metal riffs in “Machete,” there’s a pretty groove-worthy melody.
Beasts boasts no-frills and no-holds-barred rock songs, great ones at that. “Life Lessons” opens as if it were lifted straight out of This Is Spinal Tap and closes like the best metal music being put out anywhere today.
Oklahoma might claim Lost Empires for now, but the group seems destined for bigger things.
Lost Empires performs at 8 p.m. Tuesday at The Conservatory, 8911 N. Western, with Royal Thunder. Admission is $7. For more information, visit conservatoryokc. com. —Joshua Boydston
This article appears in Oct 17-23, 2012.