DISCOGRAPHY DEEP DIVE: Lair Of The Minotaur (including old Terrorizer interview in full)

Bludgeoning charge-into-battle thrash/sludge/black/everything metal. A song called 'Let's Kill These Motherfuckers'. Remind me why this isn't the greatest band in the world?

If you’re into metal, real, hard as nails, balls to the wall metal, you’ll be into Lair Of The Minotaur. That’s really all there is to it. Whatever it was that appealed to you in the genre in the first place, they probably have it. Was it the over the top, horror/fantasy hellscapes you create in your mind while listening? Or was it the more real horrors of battle, depicted as a documentary? Was it a more purely musical thing, like the mighty cavalcades of thrash, or the sinister atmosphere of black metal, or the feeling of being dragged through the mud of doom and sludge, the irresistible need to raise your fist and headbang of true heavy metal, or just simply good old Tom G.’s “UGH!”? Or the way that you can channel your rage through that of these songs, and don’t have to punch walls anymore? Was it the amazing artworks that you want to frame and put up on your wall, was it seeing a band live and feeling like you also want to pick up a guitar and shred out mighty riffs, just as soon as your sweat dries up and your ears stop ringing? Or was it, let’s face it, the fact that you’re completely aware that this isn’t music that will appeal to a lot of people, and that aligns perfectly with what you always felt anyway, that you’re a bit of an outsider that doesn’t really sync with a lot of the “normal” world?

Well, Lair Of The Minotaur offer all of that, and more, through the course of the four albums they have done so far. Yes, the last one was twelve years ago, but the band is technically still active, they have released a couple of short EPs in this long meantime, and (excitingly, I have to say) they have just recently showed up on Instagram, of all places, hilariously describing their page with “We finally gave up and started one. Always showing up at the party at 4am since 2003.” They’re not a band that will ever join any kind of rat race, and in many ways that makes perfect sense. So let’s on one hand imagine that a new album is still possible and forthcoming, and on the other hand celebrate the great body of work that already exists. I mean, I once did a feature on Terrorizer magazine that I constructed as a series of evidence in the “Lair Of The Minotaur are the ultimate metal band” case. Nerdy and just a little stupid? Sure. But also true. So, come along. Let's fuck them all again. Let's kill these motherfuckers!

LAIR OF THE MINOTAUR