EP Review: Letallis – A Thousand And One Nights – Chapter 1 (Self Released)

Taking musical influence from Opeth, Gojira, The Black Dahlia Murder, and conceptually based around the Arabian Nights tales, ‘A Thousand and One Nights – Chapter 1’ is the first of three upcoming EP releases from Letallis. Out on July 2nd, 2024.

Come on now, get those Disney Aladdin songs out of your head, this is a different kind of tale. For starters, Letallis are a heavy band with progressive elements, and this conceptual release is much darker. Although it does have a friendly and melodic introduction with Merchant. The story beginning as we, the listener, enter a bazaar and encounter a mysterious merchant.

It seems like it’s going to be melodic right to the very end, but in the last minute, a chunky guitar rhythm picks up, the drums come crashing in, and the vocals switch to a guttural style to end the opener in head banging style.

Keeping things mysteriously atmospheric with the 51-second, Palace, Letallis build a lot of anticipation for the following title track. Paying it off with a brash showcase of progressive substance that captures the intensity of the story being told. Murder, sex, betrayal… it’s all here, and told through the medium of powerful heaviness, big melodies, and scathing vocals.

Credit to Letallis, they have gone to a very creative place here and they continue to set the senses on fire with Thief. The vocals sounding meaner, the instrumentation being a bit more chaotic, and the overall tone having a moodier feel, especially when it gets more melodic.

Chapter 1 then wraps up with The Vizier and the Sage, a horrific tale of having your own opinion coloured by the hateful opinions of others, and finds Letallis at their most challenging. At times, very melodramatic, and at others, at their most scathing sounding.

The journey has well and truly started, and this EP has given plenty of reasons to look forward to what comes next in Chapter 2!

Letallis – A Thousand and One Nights – Chapter 1 Track Listing:

1. Merchant
2. Palace
3. A Thousand and One Nights
4. Thief
5. The Vizier and The Sage

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