Simmering with waves of hopelessness and melancholy, Genkaku is the second album from ambient metal outfit LOW FLYING HAWKS, featuring dummer Dale Crover (The Melvins) and bassist Trevor Dunn (Mr. Bungle) alongside multi-instrumentalists EHA and AAL. Produced, recorded and mixed by Toshi Kasai (Melvins, Big Business) at Sound of Sirens and mastered by James Plotkin (Electric Wizard, Moon Duo), Genkaku is the follow-up to LFH’s 2016 debut, K?fuku, a record lauded as “metal for a dying world” and “vividly of its time” by Consequence of Sound. Doomier and boasting bigger hooks, Genkaku is more riff-filled than the post-metal shoegaze of its predecessor, overflowing with churning guitar dirges and darkly intense music-as-mood. Genkaku (Japanese for “hallucination” or illusion”) also features Melvins frontman King Buzzo, who lends his unique vocals to the album’s titanic lead track, “Smile,” and the impossibly awesome “Space Wizard.”
