KOLP
The Covered Pure Permanence
(Temple of Torturous)

ARKAYIC REVOLT
Death's River
(Punishment 18)

TYRANTS BLOOD
Crushing Onward Into Oblivion
(Invictus)

TLON
Volumen 2
(Nasoni)

BLACKHORNED
Lost in a Twilight World
(Undercover)

THE HOWLING WIND
Into the Cryosphere

(Profound Lore)

ANGEL EYES
And For a Roof a Sky Full of 
Stars / Midwestern

(Underground Communique /
The Mylene Sheath)

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Argentine/peruvian stoner psyche band Tlon hasn’t changed much since their debut was released by German powerhouse Nasoni a couple of years ago. In their sophomore release what we can notice is a refinement in the style. There have been slight adjustments to the music, they are now pushing their own boundaries without breaking character and as a result this band is now able to offer a broader range within the same song structures and length. That’s what surprises. Any other band would have ended up with an album that’s double the size of Volumen II, but Tlon, have managed to keep the album quite concise.

This is evident in the first three tracks. Frontman Christian Van Lacke has never shied away from his love for Black Sabbath, but in Volumen II he seems to have shed none of the esoterism that charged his band’s first effort and has topped that with a mightier groove. Opener “El Banquete de los Niños” has the kind of beginning that drips fuzzy distortion through the speakers and on the awesome “Oda al Sonido Delirante”, this trio dooms like the well-concealed disciples of Iommi that they are.  “Ascencion al Vacio” is gorgeous and spacey, trippy and wicked, gentle and haunting. The second half of this song makes good use of Reino Ermitaño’s vocalist Tania Duarte, who along with Van Lacke bring the record to an unsurpassable high point.

One aspect of the sound of Tlon that makes them stand out is the androgyny vocals of Van Lacke. He goes for a high register. At times, he sounds like you’d imagine a witch to sing. Others, like in “Ascencion al Vacio”, he sounds like he belongs in a psyche folk band. It’s appropriate. I have had the fortune to chat with Van Lacke several times and never has he referred to Tlon as a metal band. Instead, he seems more content paying tribute to other Argentine 70’s bands like Pescado Rabioso, Color Humano and Pappo’s Blues and to his father’s own Tarkus.

Tlon had its start as a Tarkus revival of sorts. Like his father decades before him, Van Lacke ended up producing music in Peru and while jamming with his father’s former bandmates the decision was made to revive Tarkus. When the project failed and the sound came into its own the project was rechristened Tlon. Some material left over from the 70’s was picked up, rearranged and included in Tlon's debut. So Volumen II is the first complete album of original material. If anyone had any doubts as to the real possibilities of Tlon, this excellent album should dissipate them all.

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