The Lucidia Project
The Twilight Affliction
Out: June 30th, 2025
Playing time: 31:52
The Lucidia Project hail from Fargo (North Dakota, USA), founded by keyboard player and singer Chase Baldwin as well as bassist Benjamin Jacobs in 2022. The single ‘Afterlife’ and the self-titled debut EP were released in the same year. After another EP (‘Requiem’, 2023/2024) and single, the first album ‘The Twilight Affliction’ followed in June of this year. The musicians ‘want to mix Symphonic Metal, Death Metal and Doom Metal with a rich emotional tapestry of confessional songwriting’. That’s what the press release says.
Strings and guitars provide a calm but brief introduction to ‘Prophecy’. Then it gets hard and loud …. until Chase Baldwin’s vocals kick in. Now the heaviness is taken back a little. And yes, Melodic Metal is interwoven with some Doom and a little Symphonic. Towards the end, the growls add a slight Death Metal edge. ‘Bloodlines’ starts with nasty growls, accompanied by a hectic guitar staccato. But Chase also switches to his clear vocals again and again. ‘December’ sounds somehow dark and melodic. The drums pound along with the calm vocals. Key sounds and some piano notes are interspersed in the background. The refrain is quite catchy, ‘Lockdown’ starts off like a ballad with Tapestries of strings. But the bass and drums then create much more heaviness, and the guitars speed up the song at times. A guitar solo is then the highlight. The ballad previously hinted at follows with ‘Lights Out’. At first, the singer accompanies himself on electric piano and keyboards. Only towards the end do his bandmates provide a heavier sound. But the power ballade-like section is only brief. All in all, contemplative and beautiful. At the very end, ‘In My Sleep’ is a powerful mid-tempo Power Metal anthem. Here, too, you can hear some ballad-like passages. The Tapestries of strings provide a lot of epicness. Finally, Chase Baldwin growls once again. Alongside the ballad before, this is my favourite track on the album.
On ‘The Twilight Affliction’ you can hear exactly what the press release announced. A mixture of Melodic and Symphonic Metal, enriched with Doom and Death elements. The singer also creates an epic atmosphere with his keyboard playing. A clear improvement on ‘Requiem’.
Lineup:
Daniel Williams – Guitars
Garrett Carroll – Guitars
B.E. (Benjamin Ezekiel) Jacobs – Bass, Guitars
Chase Baldwin – Vocals, Keyboards
Aaron Bedford – Drums
Track list:
- Prophecy
- Bloodlines
- December
- Lockdown
- Lights Out
- In My Sleep
Overall
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Album - 8/10
8/10
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Cover-Art - 9/10
9/10
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Songwriting - 9/10
9/10
