Lokyata "Purified by Anger" (Indianola)
By Taylor Green
Wednesday. Feb 22, 3:52 AM
Fabulous introduction to a band that will surely be huge.

It's metalcore, sure. But beyond the big old breakdowns, the group yell-alongs here and there, and riff placement that could be found on your nearest Unearth or Killswitch Engage album, Lokyata attack the scene with fury, vengeance, and inspiration unmatched since the likes of The Dillinger Escape Plan. Mind you, this isn't mathcore. At least not all the time: there's the good mathcore drum pattern here and there, but I draw the parallel due to the encompassing, tumultuous nature of Purified By Anger, a metalcore album at its heart, sprinkled with some fine death metal authority that would do their native statesmen proud. The deep growls of Dustin on the microphone start the album off, lulling you into a false sense of direction. The album really starts out with a heavy mathcore influence behind it: there's even some very Meshuggah moments in the track. But Dustin's range spreads itself out and, unlike a vast majority of metalcore, does more than just yell angrily over three minute tracks. And that is the key to Purified By Anger.

While at heart Lokyata are metalcore, rather than being a merger of genres they hit you with 30 seconds of hardcore, then blow up in your face and drop some vicious metal onto your ass. Like genre leaders Hatebreed, Lokyata combine that perfect fusion of musicianship, fury, and straight up adrenaline that make the interweaving genres unique. With this approach, you'll find things you wouldn't on your typical run of the mill metalcore album, including some sweeping guitar solos that could root themselves as far back as Led Zepplin (especially the brilliant melodic transition about two-thirds of the way through the final track, "Solitude").

But there's always a “but” when I get albums this good, and here it’s seeing its length die at an unimpressive 23 and-a-half minutes. Only six songs deep, Purified By Anger plays more like an EP than a full-fledged album. Once I was finally getting consumed by the album, it was quickly over and the only emotion that seemed to come over me when the sound stopped was disappointment. However, my eye is fixated on the future of this Converge-meets-Meshuggah hatefest and I expect great things from Lokyata. If this is a sign of things to come, you could be talking about this band in the same breath as Hatebreed, Converge, and Unearth soon.
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Taylor Green

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