Lilitu is a perfect example of the struggle good bands have in the music market today. When a great band like this comes around, and attempt to find a label willing to market their message, they get rejected. Lilitu has been around since the early 90s, but have only recently gotten signed to The End Records. The Dolores Lesion is actually the band's third major album, but the first that you'll see anyway.

Yet, we have plenty of new bands without any creativity getting signed to major record labels and recording generic rock albums and releasing singles that we hear on the radio everyday, constantly getting overplayed until we never want to hear the name of the song, or the name of the artist ever again.

Why do I say this? I do, because Lilitu is easily the most mind-blowing and amazing band that I have heard over the last few years. They combine a unique blend of Thrash, Progressive, and Emocore into a very emotional and intense listening experience. Many of the songs go back and forth between clean vocals, and death metal like vocals. The clean vocals are very emotional, and the singer's voice has a "higher" register sounding voice. While that may not sound appealing first on, as it is very reminiscent of emo and that kind of music, his voice works very well with the music, especially when dueling with the death metal like vocals. Lilitu more screams, rather than growling, but they aren't high-pitched as Children of Bodom, nor are they nearly as low as that of the growl master, Mikael Akerfeldt. Rather, they have their own very unique quality, and when these two vocals are combined, it is one of the best things that you will ever hear. Ever.

That is why it is such a shame about the length and the production of the album. Musically, this album is one of the most technical albums, but it never sounds like the band is trying to show off. The drummer and the guitar work are all very amazing on this album. The vocals are incredible. The bass guitar stands out a lot, which is something different in this style of music. I could easily do without the keyboards, but then again, I'm against keyboards in metal music 85% of the time anyway.

The production of the album is below average at best. Everything sounds muddled together. It's hard to distinguish the bass guitar from the lower hits on the drum. You can barely tell what's guitar and what is keyboard half the time. You can hardly even hear anything on the drums except for the bass drum and the snare, and the vocals sound like they've had too many highs pumped into them by whoever mastered the album. It's listening able, but it could be so much better.

The album is only eight tracks long, and is under forty minutes. In this day and age, since when can now fit up to eighty minutes of music on to one disk, I consider that 40 minutes (half of that total) to be the least possible than a band should use. Basically, albums should be over 40 minutes. There is no excuse half the time anyway. For a lot of good underground metal bands, eight tracks is usually about 45 minutes or so. (If you are Dream Theater, it means a full 78-minute album of course. Wooo!) This album however, is only a little under 37 minutes long. For how long this band has been unsigned and unavailable to the general public, surely a longer album representing more of the band's music should be released right? I think so. Some of the tracks are over 7 minutes long too, but there is a track under two minutes on here, and it doesn't seem to have anything to do with the album period.

The album consists of these tracks:

1. Only the End of the World Again
2. Even the Vultures Have Moved On (A Tragic Love Story) 3. Delores Lesion
4. Ether
5. Follow Through
6. Desolation Breeds
7. Dark-Haired Girl
8. Fragments of My Reflection

Some of them may sound like emo tracks, yes? Well, there is a slight emo element to many of the songs, as they are described by the band's website as "Dark, Emotional Metal." A perfect description if you ask me.

I'm not going to go through every track, but there are two truly amazing, standout tracks on this album.

The first is the second track, "Even the Vultures Have Moved On." This track basically represents everything that Lilitu stands for. It's emotional, heavy, and combines death metal and the wonderful singing of the band during it's catchy as a cold chorus.

The second track I would like to mention is the best track on the album, and perhaps the best song that I have heard in years. I even named the title of my review after it. It is the track, "Follow Through." Follow Through is one of the longer tracks on the album (and thank God for that) and is also the absolute best on the album. It combines the normal elements of Lilitu, but for some reason, this song just seems to be in a league of it's own.

I cannot really describe it. The only real way for you to understand Follow Through is for you to listen to it yourself. Well, GOOD NEWS! If you visit "The End Records" site (the record label of Lilitu) there is a downloads section where you can download the full song on .MP3.

Anyways, if you are interested in Thrash, Death, or Emocore, you should be getting this album. Put it on your list right after sliced bread and gas for your car!

Recommended: Yes

Great Music to Play While: Listening