Album Review: Lutharo – Chasing Euphoria (Atomic Fire Records)

Melodic metal outfit Lutharo are back with Chasing Euphoria, the follow-up to their debut full-length Hiraeth, due out on March 15th via Atomic Fire Records.

The Canadian metallers formed in 2014 bringing a mixture of traditional heavy metal, melodic death metal, thrash metal and more. Since their formation, Lutharo strived to sculpt an epic sound that would see aspects of power and death colliding, combining artfully crafted melodies, harmonies and precision with hard-hitting power and force. After releasing two EPs (2018’s Unleash the Beast and 2020’s Wings of Agony), Lutharo pulled out all the stops on Hiraeth, the debut full-length album that was released on October 15th, 2021.  What Hiraeth brought forth, Chasing Euphoria now amplifies. Expertly balancing hauntingly beautiful atmospheres with raw power and aggression. A fantastically epic journey awaits their listeners.

Chasing Euphoria was recorded by drummer Cory Hofing at Coho Studio, with additional recording by Thomas Ireland and mixing and mastering by Lasse Lammert of LSD Studio. The band partnered with Niklas Sundin for the stunning artwork featured on the cover.

Lutharo is Krista Shipperbottom on vocals, Victor Bucur and John Raposo on guitar, Chris Pacey on bass and Cory Hofing on drums.

Lutharo bring us 11 new tracks to get stuck into on Chasing Euphoria starting off with the epic and atmosphere building orchestral instrumental called Gates of Enchantment. As the album starts proper with Reaper’s Call, that clash of styles is instantly apparant and very exciting. A nice riff gets us going, then a vicious roar joins in followed by a massive power metal lead guitar melody. Vocals are fast and heavy, growled and aggressive but backed by a higher clean line. The death metal verse subsides and offers up a power metal esque chorus with clean vocals and a catchy hook. Jumping back and forward between these styles does cause a clash, but its an interesting one. It reminds me a little of recent Dragoncorpse stuff in the best possible way.

The genre mixing continues with a drop off in tempo to an overall cleaner sound before a jump in to death/thrash metal with furious drums, thick bass and quick riffs. That then transforms into an anthemic solo. What is going on here? A lot, is the answer, and it’s fucking epic. A final chorus comes back in, this time backed by big orchestral sounds and I’m already getting ready to start this track again. Lutharo have started very strong here.

Across the entirety of Chasing Euphoria, that strong start is continued. The mix of genres means that it is almost impossible to ever feel run of the mill or boring. You just never know what is going to happen minute by minute, not just track by track. It also means Lutharo can keep every song fresh by just elevating the use of one particular genre. They do that well with tracks that always mix different things but occasionally lean more heavily on a dominamt style. Ruthless Bloodline has straight up death metal edges in verses that absolutely slay and has a slightly cleaner chorus to contrast that very heavy and aggressive vein that runs through it.

Tracks like Time To Rise also lean heavily on the death/melodic death metal style but use an acoustic clean intro line to each verse for an even sharper contrast. Born to Ride has heavier sections but an overall feel of a more traditional heavy metal track and some serious high notes to ram that message home as it ends. Bonded to the Blade starts with a bit of power metal before turning into a bit of a power metal/melodeath metal mix track with a chorus of roared vocals over a catchy melodic guitar hook. Title track, Chasing Euphoria has a bit more of a settled melodeath vibe to it but uses the powerful roars and beautiful cleans to create contrast within it.

Choruses are obviously a speciality of Lutharo too and there are some epic ones here. Very easy to catch the hook in, very singable and memorable, songs like Reapers Call have magical choruses. I also love the heavier chorus in Bonded to the Blade but my favourite is probably currently torn between either the title track Chasing Euphoria or Creating a King. Both choruses are pretty simple, structurally but just perfect in their execution and stick hard in the memory. Though I also really love the chorus in Strong Enough to Fall so now I have a three way battle going on!

Keeping with the mix of genres, there are also plenty of big, anthemic solos Ruthless Bloodline has an absolute corker of a solo. Actually, it has two of equal quality. The solo/instrumental section in Time To Rise is phenomenal with solos, bass solos, drum fills and orchestral backing. It’s massive. I love the power metal, speed intro to Born to Ride and the way that catchy lead guitar reappears as bridges. Bonded to the Blade has a really neat and quirky dual harmonising guitar solo that is so good to listen to. Strong Enough to Fall has a banging solo. Paradise or Parasite has one of the best solos and instrumental sections across the whole album, just layering in a bit of everything and allowing every instrument, and the orchestral backing all to step forward at different times and take the lead.

Lutharo close out Chasing Euphoria with the longest track on the album, Freedom of the Night, which takes everything mentioned above and just ramps it up a notch further to a notch I didn’t know existed. The drums seem to hit new levels of speed and power, the vocals stay as impressive as they have been throughout with massive growls and powerful cleans and the bass slams a rhythm that gets your head moving. The guitars, whether through the heavy riffing or the catchy leads are impressive, and I really like how they fade down to a gorgeous acoustic melody to close the song, and the album out nicely.

Damn, Lutharo have released a killer album here in Chasing Euphoria. The talent on display here is next level and very deserving of the highest praise. Vocals are insane and really need mentioning. To be an expert vocalist of a style is one thing, to be able to master and deliver expertly every style imaginable in next level stuff and Krista Shipperbottom kills it. Everyone does though with no instrument taking a back seat here. It cannot be easy to have to become not just an expert at your instrument, but be able to wield it in many different ways, constantly swicthing throughout a track. As a person with limited instrument skill, I am in awe.

Then, to take that skill and apply it to songs that are so well crafted and flow so well, that’s even more impressive. I think Lutharo have set a really high bar here with Chasing Euphoria. It is an album that constantly delivers above expectation and is immensely exciting to listen to. It’s comfortably one of the best releases I have listened to this year so far and is going to be getting a lot of playtime.

Lutharo Links

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