Today we’re going to do a little deep dive on the self-titled record from LÖRI released in January of 2024. The Berlin based band has its origin story rooted in Peru, where the inception and much of the concept for the album was created. The record had parts recorded in three countries. Guitar and bass in Peru, drums in Mexico, and vocals in Germany. 

Why go back so far in the year for a record review? Well.. for starters this record is an excellent blend of its influences and deserves to reach the widest of audiences. The band was kind enough to share with me the influences and I can hear bits and pieces throughout the record. Touching on screamo bands like Daïtro, on to crustier bands like Momentum, hints of post-metal like Buriend Inside, wrapping it up with dashes of post-rock influence.

Secondly, with the year coming to close you’d hate to miss any potential contenders for the year end list, right? So let’s explore some fantastic emotive hardcore. 

Self-Titled is the bands second album, a follow up to “Obtusion//Aversion” released in 2016. The album is a concept album spanning 8 songs over 32 minutes. At its core the album explores a narrator stuck in a dream reality. Within this world we find a utopian society rooted in equality, where sameness is celebrated. The dehumanization of society restricts that which we celebrate, individuality, art for arts’ sake, and our free will.

The album opens with thunderous bass and what sounds like reverb self-oscillating but guitars kick in with riffs that call to that European screamo of the mid-aughts. “Descent” moves into into raucous, distorted riffs, until the track comes a close. Nearly instrumental, Nate, who contributed vocals (and lyrical translations alongside guitarist, Hugo) screams, obscured by light, trapped within torment, what once was bright, the spark in my eyes heeds no fire. And thus the stage is set. 

The second track of the album opens with tasteful chugging to nod your head to before the drums break away and lead to tasteful gear leads. These cleaner, licks, are a presence throughout the album, a juxtaposition against the distorted riffs, these stand out nicely. This riff, or variations thereof, returns, gently hinting at some of the “post” vibes without becoming self indulgent. When the distortion kicks back in we’re given this lyrical moment that begs to be screamed by an entire crowd, this place is unfamiliar, these footprints aren’t my own. You can visualize bodies jammed around a microphone thrust into a crowd. 

As the second track ends, so does the third begin, continuing to tie track into track, continuous sound. The affected guitar noises, delay pedals, and pickscrapes burbling into the pounding floor toms of Azael’s kit. Nate’s vocals in the opening of this song gave off strong vibes to “Whetting Occam’s Razor” era Momentum (in fact, I called it out to Rob while discussing this record and felt so vindicated to hear they were an influence). 

When you listen to the lead guitar parts on this record you can hear so much of the screamo influence, and then all the rhythm, the vocals, expand on the start of that influence, transcending beyond the genre. The syncopated riff that hits midway through “III” and the lead riff that accompanies it really put that on display. 

At the halfway point we come to “Halt,” a spoken word track filled with huge cymbal washes, and ambient pad sounds, warbly guitar riffs dancing to and fro while a driving bass line keeps it all from floating into the ether. The lines of the narrator resonates deeply with the general malaise that weighs on the human condition, to do something unique, it’s like pulling teeth.

“IV” with syncopated guitar, bass, drums and vocals all working off the same energy. But as the syncopation dies off we’re treated to this anthemic sitting beneath the screaming. When the ambient section kicks in, about midway through the track, you really appreciate how much attention was put into carving out space for the bass, kudos to founding members Hugo and Sajid. This transitions nicely to catchy guitar riffing before some chugging closes the track.

Days go by, nothing changes no matter which way I push. It always comes right back, pendulum. These lyrics truly gripped me, faced with monotony and mundane, a never-ending news cycle, political apathy into antipathy, the constant pendulum swings. I won’t spoil it more, but as the clean passages takes over there is something uplifting in it, something that might inspire hope, as additional voices join the narrator on their journey. “V” lets us know, this is a rebirth.

The final track, lyrically, may have us all suffering a bit of an existential crisis. It is hopeful in its suggestion that our very existence, sharing in it all, is something worthy of waking up for tomorrow, even though we know we’re going to exist in this same hell again and again and again. Sonically, the guitar on this track starts out with big nods to crust. But none of this feels like hero worship, this is LÖRI sharing that experience and interpreting it, making something for themselves and sharing it back so that we can feel it, too. Now, the pain I suffer, it’s no match. I adore the blackened crust riff that hits with 90 seconds left in the song, the bleak aspect of the blackened tremolo picking lends so nicely to the motif. 

“Self-Titled” is an album written over the course of several years, stymied by cross continent moves, band members in multiple countries, and a global pandemic, yet there is an incredible cohesion between Hugo and Sajid as the founding members during their shared time in Lima, Peru, and then the support from Azael in Mexico, and Nate in Germany. I cannot recommend this record enough. It has catchy riffs and driving rhythms that have you pumping your fists and screaming along. I’m excited to see what the band has in store for the world with new music and potential tours in 2025. 

Eight different labels have released this incredible twelve inch album on vinyl with variant copies in brown, green and gray. Links for all those labels are listed on the LÖRI bandcamp linked here and below this article. Support if you can.