‘Life-Vessel’ by Luminous Beings | New Album, ‘Horrors’
Exclusive track premiere of ‘Life-Vessel’ by Luminous Beings, taken from the upcoming album ‘Horrors’, out June 24th, 2022.
“’Life-Vessel’ is the internal dialogue of Frankenstein’s monster, as he grapples with the reality of being a monstrosity, in every sense of the word”. – Michael Wright
Luminous Beings is the post-hardcore musical expression of singer/guitarist Michael Wright, whose debut album ‘Horrors’ is a delectably nuanced balance of melodic yearning and questioning with gripping, sometimes frenetic rhythms, and even harsh noise. It all seems utterly brand new yet calls back to classic albums in the era in which the underground scene meshed textural experimentation and fiercely emotional openness with churning, tumescent rock.
Wright was born in Portland, OR “became a new person” in Los Angeles, CA, and currently resides in London, U.K. The second reason for his band name is of course a Star Wars reference (“as the wise Master Yoda says: ‘luminous beings are we, not this crude matter”). That makes sense when you allow the waves of cinematic playing throughout the record to wash over you.
But another explanation rings truer to the raw emotion and alchemical energy of the lyrics within the music: An internal battle Wright had with his upbringing, after which he had “some pretty drastic worldview changes.” He discovered that “despite our flaws and our weaknesses and our pain, there is a brightness that outshines the darkest of these.” Rejecting religious bondage through therapy and a love of transformative music, a starkly revealing album comes into the world that many healing from spiritual trauma will relate to.
“’Horrors’ is about a variety of different monsters,” Wright explains, “some more human than others — including some pop culture ones, such as Dr. Frankenstein and his monster, and Dr. Manhattan from Alan Moore’s The Watchmen, and a cursed Theodin from Lord of the Rings.” ‘Horrors’ is about how instead of being born evil, we are made into monsters through suffering and pain.” But Wright hopes they are painted in a way that shows there is always hope of redemption.
The album’s ten tracks were all written and performed by Wright, who produced it as well in Los Angeles. It is full of liminal tracks like the soul-slamming ‘Life-Vessel’, about an artificially human creation trying to reconcile his actions with a sense of self-worth; ‘Bodies’, a cryptic examination “of how we use people as a means of filling our emotional and mental voids,” Wright says, “told metaphorically through the story of a man who steals bones from others in order to fill the missing ones in himself.” It makes the listener’s skin crawl with the exposed excessive lyrical need of its narrator.
‘Ouroboros’, the LP’s penultimate song, feels transcendently performed after a prolonged period of long-suffering. “It’s a song about not only non-violence, but non-hate, based around MLK’s ‘hate cannot drive out hate’ quote, i.e., hating an evil person only serves to damage the very thing you do in opposing him.”
It’s taken Wright years of woodshedding and putting together elements to make up the anthems and threnodies that make ‘Horrors’ burn and shine. A couple of releases before this he put out were more metal-based; his fondness for bands like Thrice and Deftones show the affinity for hard sounds, while the existential yearning of Radiohead is acknowledged as well. “Currently I’m studying film composition, so I’m sure you will find an increasing influence from the likes of John Williams and Hans Zimmer and alike. Also, the Stranger Things soundtrack rules.”
Touring plans for Luminous Bodies are still in the very early stages, but 3 to 4 weeks are planned for mainland Europe around the record’s release. After playing ‘Horrors’ it’s hard to imagine not wanting to hear these gorgeously enthralling epics played out live.
Headline photo: Stefania Carli
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