Out Now
Words by Matt Gabites
Denied Existence is a term that perfectly sums up that infuriating moment when your smart phone decides it doesn’t want to recognise your fingerprint.
It also happens to be the album title for Oklahoma City 5 piece alternative rock mob The Lost End.
Denied Existence begins its 7 track journey with Cease to Be and immediately positions itself at the QOTSA end of the alternative spectrum.
Vocals that you just know are being delivered by a guy wearing shades and a bass guitar that’s high enough in the mix to make Jason Newstead cry.
Shadows on the Wall starts with an eerie synth riff, think of an ice cream truck with its battery running low. Another deceptively catchy chorus leads into a short Kashmir sojourn before closing things out with the catchy chorus/eerie ice cream truck combo.
Traces does its best to hold the line, thematically and pace wise, with the first two songs, but then the (catchy) chorus kicks in and goes up a gear.
A cadence that Aside to Ruin maintains. It’s at this point, that the dynamic between the more frantic instrumental moments and the almost too cool for school vocal delivery really comes into its own.
Disguise gives a glimpse of just what a collaboration between Danzig and Temptation era The Tea Party might sound like.
In Decay revisits the formula of the album’s opening tracks and, incredibly, improves on it.
Safe to Say brings the album to a close with the refrain of “I will know my place”.
While it isn’t an essential listen, The Lost End have delivered an undeniably good album.
And that is a great place to be.
