Locrian for Experimental/Post-Metal

Founded in 2005, Locrian are an American electronic post-metal trio based in Chicago, Illinois, comprised of guitarist André Foisy, vocalist/synthesist Terence Hannum and drummer Steven Hess. Locrian perform a style of drone-doom metal which blends dark ambient, post-rock, black metal and krautrock into a difficult-to-classify mix, sonically referencing Sunn O))), Lustmord, Earth, Coil and even Kraftwerk. The band's unique sound is owed to a diverse palette of influences extending from progressive rock icons Yes, Genesis, Magma and King Crimson to extreme metal bands like Darkthrone, One Eyed God Prophecy and Suffocation, and experimental industrial acts Coil, Ramleh and Einstürzende Neubauten to electronic artists Manuel Göttsching, Fripp & Eno and Popol Vuh (whose 1976 track "Der Ist Der Weg" Locrian covered for a 7" single). Inspired by authors such as Samuel Delaney and J.G. Ballard and the films of Andrei Tarkovsky, Locrian explicitly meld the storytelling tropes of progressive rock and industrial to address the modern dystopia of late capitalism and the destruction of the environment: playing, in their own words, "decayed music for a decaying civilization."

Locrian began as a duo after Hannum and Foisy met in Chicago while respectively studying visual art and anthropology for graduate school, with the latter coining the band name after the musical scale once considered Satanic by the Catholic Church. Hannum, Foisy and their wives played in the folk group Unlucky Atlas before the two started the prolific project, whose discography would amass nearly forty releases across a wide variety of record labels, including seven full-lengths and three collaborative albums with like-minded artists Horseback, Christoph Heemann and Mamiffer. Locrian's earliest work was a blackened take on the progressive electronic artists of the 1970s, with the group shifting to a more lyrical and rock-based sound by 2009's LP Drenched Lands while balancing their kosmische tendencies.

Percussionist Steven Hess (of RLYR, Haptic and On) joined the group in 2010, participating on Locrian's most popular and critically acclaimed album The Crystal World. Locrian signed to Relapse Records in 2012, with their following records Return to Annihilation and Infinite Dissolution engaging with more traditional post-metal idioms. The following years found the trio divided by career obligations and other musical commitments, with Foisy relocating to Albany, New York and Hannum to Baltimore, Maryland, and the global coronavirus crisis delaying plans to record. Locrian broke their seven-year absence in 2022 with the Profound Lore-issued LP New Catastrophism and an accompanying EP, Ghost Frontiers, both of which harkened back to the group's early electronic work.

"The Crystal World" (2010)

"The Clearing & The Final Epoch" (2012)

"Bless Them That Curse You" (collaboration with Mamiffer) (2012)

"Return to Annihilation" (2013)

"Infinite Dissolution" (2015)

"Ghost Frontiers" EP (2022)

"New Catastrophism" (2022)

"Rain of Ashes" (2009)