Missed Album Review: Lost In Lavender Town – On Tonight’s Show

Style: progressive metal, djent (instrumental)
Recommended for fans of: Arch Echo, Angel Vivaldi, Liquid Tension Experiment, RichaadEB, Video game music
Country: United Kingdom
Release date: 23 February, 2024

Heavy metal and video game soundtrack covers go together like Necrozma and Solgaleo. The shared intensity of their fusion fuels an expression of the simulated struggle that makes interactive games so uniquely compelling, combining the heart-pounding subject matter with appropriately expressive soundscapes, as demonstrated by popular video game metal cover artists like RichaadEB. Although Lost In Lavender Town produce original compositions rather than direct covers of video game soundtracks, the inspiration they draw from gaming-related subjects nevertheless provides that same core intensity, evoking scenes of the games in question even when the music has no direct connection to them. Despite the band’s Pokémon nomenclature, throughout their discography they’ve played with content from video game culture as a whole, and On Tonight’s Show pulls from the Final Fantasy series of JRPGs in particular.

The Final Fantasy series already has its own ties to progressive music, as famed series composer Nobuo Uematsu was not subtle about his love of Emerson, Lake & Palmer in his compositions for the franchise. On Tonight’s Show is likewise filled with not-so-subtle Final Fantasy references, featuring track titles referencing game concepts like limit break names¹ (“Blitz Ace” and “Braver”) as well as musical nods to the series’s soundtrack, almost directly quoting a specific Final Fantasy X track and frequently evoking the iconic “Prelude” arpeggios. After a cute, jazzy intro which echoes the album art’s depiction of a guest musical performance on a TV talk show, “Blitz Ace” kicks the EP into overdrive. Although the track quickly shifts into more standard instrumental-prog fare, the intense piano intro is lifted almost exactly from “Assault,” a memorable entry in the FFX soundtrack both for its pounding rhythm and the climactic story moment which it scores. Its usage here by Lost In Lavender Town injects the same sense of urgency and tension that a player might feel in the game, setting expectations for the rest of the track (and indeed the album) where the wholly original parts pick up that same energy and carry it forward.

Primarily, Lost In Lavender Town present a style of instrumental music popularized by Arch Echo and also seen in Asymmetric Universe, with relatively light touches of djent’s signature chugs, mostly found in the rhythm guitar. These artists instead show greater evidence of jazz influences in their chord progressions and favor high, relatively undistorted guitar melody lines rather than forcing generic, unexciting rhythm parts into the spotlight as might be expected of more djent-focused bands like TesseracT. That said, the third track “Plate” shows no shame in the band’s djent roots, with a deep, chugging intro that progresses through a longer section of borderline discordance before the track finally breaks out into a gentler, more melodic section led by bright keyboard arpeggios almost certainly intended to mimic Final Fantasy’s iconic “Prelude” despite being set to a 7/8 time signature. Indeed, the complex time signatures throughout On Tonight’s Show are its greatest departures from the overall genre of video game music, which more commonly sticks to simple time signatures, helping the player focus with a steady groove.

The only small stumble, if it even qualifies as such, comes as On Tonight’s Show reaches its conclusion. The final track “He Spin,” odd and inscrutable in its naming, also misses out on most of the excellent songwriting that has thus far made up the EP, and lacks a clear thematic focus or even any direct musical or game-related references to act as a point of entry for the listener (although at one point the inclusion of accordion lends it a bit of a RuneScape “Sea Shanty” quality). Still, the musicianship is strong and the elements are individually enjoyable, so as a low point for Lost In Lavender Town, it’s hardly catastrophic despite being the final impression one receives, and an epic piano break around the midpoint offers just enough cool factor to latch onto.

Lost In Lavender Town offer their original homage to video game music, inspired by (and sometimes quoting directly from) the greats of the genre but still expressing LILT’s own takes on instrumental metal and the musical moods and textures that make video game soundtracks cook. Much like Feather’s Eternal last year, this short but sweet EP makes clear homage to the game composers that inspired it, but also makes for good listening on its own even if you have no greater context for the soundtracks that it references. On Tonight’s Show combines conventions of two seemingly unrelated genres in metal and video game music, but these two great sounds sound great together, and the shared tendency for intensity amplifies the forceful, thrilling instrumentation.

Recommended tracks: Blitz Ace, Plate, Braver, Clancy
You may also like: Feather, Asymmetric Universe, earth7, Deeply Woven, No Ostriches
Final verdict: 8/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | YouTube | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives page

Label: Independent

Lost In Lavender Town is:
– Rob Moseley (bass)
– Jard (drums)
– Christopher Bowe (guitars)
– Muni (guitars)
– Rowan (guitars)
– Jono (keyboards)

1. Yes, I know, Blitz Ace is actually an overdrive, not a limit break. They’re effectively the same thing, you pedant. ↩︎