The Luna Sequence - The Day The Curse Grew Stronger (thelunasequence.bandcamp.com)
This time around, I was planning on reviewing Autopsy, but in order to avoid churning out a boring “it’s great but what else would you expect from them, and I’m surprised they’re still making records” type of review, I decided to go in a completely different direction and focus on something that is fresh and very unique, albeit strange to the point that I am still not quite sure how I feel about it.
The Luna Sequence is the electronic music project of a Springfield, Missouri-dwelling lady by the name of Kaia Young. Young combines her love of metal and punk music with her electronica sensibilities to make something that skates the boundaries of drum n' bass and neurofunk, plays with elements of house and dubstep, and incorporates melodically-informed metal guitar, drums, and, weirdly enough, violin. While this wild mix is sometimes a breathtakingly stellar success, other times it falls a bit flat, resulting in strange layers of sounds that, while great on their own, don’t necessarily agree.
Her newest release, The Day the Curse Grew Stronger, certainly showcases a growth in sound design abilities and riffage, but the music seems a bit overbearing. Instead of working in harmony as they did on previous albums, the various dueling instruments and genres seem to be at all-out war with each other. When I discovered The Luna Sequence a few weeks ago, I listened to her older releases available on Spotify, Persona and the After Sunfall EP (she has a few more that aren’t on there, but I plan to make it my mission to hear them soon). On these albums, I was impressed with the way she structured her drum n bass songs to have a metal vibe (instead of builds and drops, there are choruses and verses), and the way she cleverly mixed guitar and other potentially overbearing instruments behind her drums and synth pads, so that the overall structure of the song was decidedly electronic.
On The Day The Curse Grew Stronger, though, it appears that she has thrown all caution to the wind. She mixes her melodic death metal riffs and cheesy violin interludes way in the front, shamelessly boosts her silly house synths, and just generally makes a mess of all her song structures. Incidentally, while researching her work further, I’ve discovered that there is a whole genre of this brand of melodic, emotive metal-electronica fusion, some of the more well-known examples of this being Pendulum, who did a song with In Flames, and Celldweller. Some of this stuff is pretty sweet, and I do love my melodic death metal, but for the most part, it errs on the cheesy side, and I think there are much better examples of genre fusing out there. The Luna Sequence stands out from a lot of other artists in this genre, but that doesn't necessarily say much.
While The Luna Sequence is certainly an interesting project, I can’t help but feel that Young still has a little bit of growing to do before she really finds her sound. Based on her pictures, it seems that she is either still a student or barely out of college, and this, combined with the fact that she does all the production herself, is certainly impressive. It is also really refreshing to see more people adopting a devil-may-care attitude about genre and simply playing what they love no matter how purists will react. Still, the fact remains that some of The Luna Sequence's arrangements don’t work, and too much of her chaotic song structure will give you a headache. Her music is worth hearing, but don’t be surprised if you come away from your listen feeling that she needs to make a few improvements before becoming the best that she can be.