Lotus Thrones is the solo project of Philadelphia-based musician, Heath Rave, formerly of Wolvhammer and Across Tundras. The new act was conceived during the 2020 quarantine, when the debut album, Lovers In Wartime, was put together, expected out on July 30th, 2021 through Disorder Recordings.
Totally hands on, exploring new ways of instrumentation and production, Rave made Lotus Thrones a single-handed project which touches on a very wide variety of styles, from post punk and darkwave to industrial and post metal. Although the artist's experience in the acclaimed bands of his past is palpable, Lotus Thrones comes across as something very different right from the start.
The impending album has already produced a couple of singles, Fatigue, which comes with a video bearing the characteristic dark visual style of Chariot of Black Moth, and Diametric Retrograde, paired to a trippy clip created by Casey McKenna.
"Fatigue was the first real song I wrote for this project," Rave comments. "It was during my second ten-day quarantine due to direct exposure, and I was just as over it as all of us have been and could ever be. I was thinking about how we could hide behind the masks, the same way people hind behind their computers and their manufactured personas and can safely antagonize from afar without fear or consequence. At the same time, thinking of old dangerous behaviors as rather dull compared the constant agony of being inside on top of the pain of venturing out into the world to do banal tasks and being disgusted if people would get too close. The video is meant to express that paranoia and heartache. If anything good can come from all of this, it would be people continuing keep their distance after all is said and done."
Regarding the newest single, the artist explains: "Diametric Retrograde is a commentary I wrote on two opposing forces saying the same things in direct opposition to each other whilst both being in denial of the steep decline and deterioration of the situation surrounding them. Unable to see that both parties are wrong for the same reasons, the result is complete and total collapse while being willfully oblivious to the consequences."
In a similar manner to the experimental, genre defying style of bands like Have A Nice Life and Nadja, Lotus Thrones comes into sight with cogent first material which feels familiar and at the same time way out of the ordinary.
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