I love hyperbole, but there’s so much of it in music discourse these days, so much so that you can’t even call something ‘mid’ or ‘okay’ without at least three (hundred, depending on your reach) people translating that to mean it’s the biggest pile of horseshit the world has borne witness to. Like… some things can just be okay! On the other hand, the good stuff has to be incomprehensibly good, like life-changing, spirit-ascending stuff that alters the course of being for some. People are dead serious about some of this stuff and that’s cool, reflective of a passionate bond with art, but damn… some of y’all need to calm down a bit. I blame stan culture, but I digress. It’s because of all of this that I hope you take everything I’m about to say about Lowen similarly seriously without much hyperbole intended, just straight genuine facts opinion.
The funniest part is I don’t even know where to begin. I’ve listened to Lowen‘s new album several, several times over the last few weeks and I’m writing this review in mid-September – chances are the amount of times I’d have listened to it by its release date will rise exponentially because I just can’t get enough. I am hopelessly enthralled, borderline hypnotized by it. From the first time I heard this album’s second single, “The Seed That Dreamed Of Its Own Creation”, I knew it was going to be something truly special. I was right.
Do Not Go To War With The Demons Of Mazandaran references a province of Iran that borders the Caspian Sea, one absolutely rich in history and regional significance. It’s also remarkably beautiful – postcard-worthy doesn’t even begin to do it justice. More specifically, the album bases much of its themes and lyrics on the Shahnameh, The Book of Kings, specifically a chapter wherein the arrogant king Kay Kavus lets his conquesting hubris get the better of him and his army as he is lured by a Div (demon, pronounced ‘deev’) into invading Mazandaran, a hotbed of great Divs, with the promise of beauty and riches. Read the album title again – you can probably guess how it went. It’s a mythical cultural touchstone in the region, akin to, at least from where I stand, the Iliad‘s importance to ancient Greece, and made for one of my most fun Wikipedia deep dives in a while – thanks, Lowen.
Lowen‘s music is similarly touched by myth and the fantastic, but also grounded in a very real reality faced today by many. Singer Nina Saeidi was born in the UK after their family was exiled from Iran. While I don’t know any details beyond that, it’s easy to see that she’s a staunch critic of Iran’s patriarchal, repressive, religion-based leadership as “Corruption on Earth” is devoted entirely to the women who protest that government and are summarily sentenced to death for doing so – veritable heroes putting their life on the line to make their voices known and inspire others. The song itself is intensely vibrant with several sections that flow into the next so well, water-like in their clarity and in how you just wanna be quenched by it. The guitar melodies from Shem Lucas are second to none, only bested by others elsewhere on this album, heaviness and aggression toned up and down freely creating this approachable variance that still doesn’t throw softballs at you. Throughout, Saeidi’s voice is a soaring guide through the tumult, weaving poetic imagery that’s too beautiful to be telling a story this grim. They’re one of the most powerful and evocative vocalists I’ve heard in metal since KING WITCH‘s Laura Gilchrist (née Donnelly). The final two verses are especially potent:
‘To thrive in the silence between worlds
And tread passage through voids innumerable
Taught to walk in silence
Through the raging of thunder‘I cannot speak, so I raise my fist
I cannot sing, so I raise my voice
I cannot live, so I die fighting
For every one you kill, a thousand more rise up‘
“Najang Bah Divhayeh Mazandaran” is effectively the album’s title track, just in Farsi, and delves into the Shahnameh tale detailed earlier. Another remarkably strong track, it plays with melody like a cat plays with a toy mouse. It seems so easy for Lowen to craft these exceptionally epic wonders where one minute you’re enraptured in this story of fate and the next you’re headbanging. The best moments though have overlap thanks to the blistering drumming of Cal Constantine and riffs that I can only describe as spellbinding. I’ve genuinely lost track of how many times I’ve had this music stuck in my head for the last month. I absolutely love every moment on this track.
“Waging War Against God” is another song that just hits on all cylinders, challenging the supposed rule of God ordained through man’s law and how all who oppose it/them will meet a bloody end (‘They make one law for man/And yet as beasts they walk the Earth/Proclaiming god-sent verse/And slaying all who question‘). The lyrics and vocals feel so desperate, clawing at the metaphorical robes and feet of leaders too sick with power and weighed down by opulence to hear any pleas, but the way it’s conveyed is masterful in its prose (‘Why do we grasp at eternity, when we know it will leave us behind?/Time is the butcher of memory, and memory the grave of time‘). The single “The Seed That Dreamed Of Its Own Creation” is by far the shortest song and still maintains its strengths in the middle of an album just packed with hits. This is a good time to mention the tones of the instruments – drums feel massive, guitars fierce and fiery, and the vocals so uniquely enunciated and naturally manipulated with staccato harmonies that pay homage to more traditional Iranian/Persian singing. It’s also the only song here sung entirely in Farsi.
“May Your Ghost Drink Pure Water”, aside from being an awesome title, is the outlier of Do Not Go To War With The Demons Of Mazandaran in that it has a slightly slower, more cinematic feel and mood. A pensive cello intro gives way to an explosive entrance for Lowen and their complete dominance over catchy licks and riffs. It’s worth noting these songs don’t have traditional hooks or choruses – all that work to make something memorable and worth returning to was distributed evenly across the whole composition of the songs with literally no weak points to speak of. This track is no exception, and neither is “Ghazal For The Embrace Of Fire”. The final track of the album is resplendent, short on time to waste, and big on adventure. It contains an ancient Babylonian incantation taken from an authentic tablet that allows one to see a ghost when chanted, something that carries great emotional weight if you know a ghazal is a poem usually focusing on love, loss, mourning, and celebration. The song also plays on destiny with the refrain of ‘so many forking paths‘ present throughout. It feels like an end for the album, both thematically and sonically, wrapping up the darkly mystic themes in a satin bow before pushing it off a cliff with the final haunting harmonies.
Do Not Go To War With The Demons Of Mazandaran is straight up one of the most compelling pieces of music I’ve heard in a long time, particularly in metal. While it doesn’t do much in raw innovation or experimentation, it becomes an incredible listen by virtue of its writing and composition, the way it masters melody and imbues the music in folkish culture, and its confidence. Every single note feels so viscerally calculated and filled with soul like every member has poured into this album exhaustively. Being only the third project from Lowen and second LP out of those three, it’s hard to impress upon someone else just how complete and ludicrously good it is without dipping into the hyperbolic pools (which I’m known to do, but I’m really trying to keep things as literal as I can because the band deserves that). It’s a shame that a lot of people will hear what Lowen are doing here and not be nearly as impressed as I am – I want them to hear what I hear, I want them to feel what I feel, personal tastes be damned.
Lowen are one of those bands that can really alter perspective on music. I found myself so helplessly bewitched by everything I heard here, each minute bringing something different and fun to my ears. Do Not Go To War With The Demons Of Mazandaran feels like a watershed moment in metal, something that will at least quietly become acclaimed to the point of raving by those who choose to know, and I consider myself lucky to know. From the ultra detailed and vivid cover art from Hervé Scott Flament seemingly depicting an esoterically sci-fi take on Mazandaran and its many Divs, to every puncturing and entrancing vocal melody, to every strum of the sand-eroded guitars, I say the following with all my being: this is one of the best albums I’ve heard in a very long time.
Band photo by Andy Ford
