Review: Christian Cosentino “Lawn”

This spring Australian multi-instrumentalist Christian Cosentino has released his first ever record “Lawn”, and did it independently. And despite the fact that all the songs of this record were written between 2017 and 2018, only recently it was published digitally.

There’s not so much information about Christian Cosentino who is the sole participant on the “Lawn”, like a jack-of-all trades he masterfully controls not only songwriting and compositional duties, but also manages programming, recording and mixing sessions. So without doubt, “Lawn” is very personal and candid album, and with such sincere and devoted attitude, it boils and seethes with emotional sincerity and individualistic musical visions.

It’s not so easy to define the music of Christian in specific stylistic conceptions, and there’s no telling how it fits into metal’s music mind, because the base is too overwhelmed with classical music. Yes, some principles of symphonic black metal are truly alive here, but not on an ongoing basis, coming to life occasionally to highlight the relevant aggression. And with black metal comes all the common blacky fuss, like rawer sound, strident screams (very muted), blast beats, distorted guitars and rapid tempo. But with symphonic epicness and medieval hints it is like transitional phase between black metal, classical music and dark ambient. The opulent solemnity of neo-classical power metal is also a good highlight for classical music foundation. All the classical music elements are lively and rather joyous, but with all the pertinent mood shifts also produce anxiety, mysteriousness, calmness or melancholy (“Lawn”). And considering that the music of Christian Cosentino is soaked with traditional classical and more modern neo-classical elements (“Duality”), it is full of mood changes and emotional patterns.

Sometimes the songs lean towards grimier side of music, like dark and horror ambient (“Psychogenic”), responsible also for gloomy atmospheric vibes. During metal parts all the compositions are really atmospherically rich and only symphonic orchestrations lead again to solemn and more formal majesty. The album is rather instrumental; there are not so much singing lines, and only the last track “Lustre” presents some clean singing, also subdued. And despite all these constant musical alterations, “Lawn” sounds so lively and spiritually clean, like it gets to the heart of Christian, exposing him unrestrictedly.

The main flow of the “Lawn” is its lack of integrity, no, it’s not too chaotically messy and without a common thread, but still some mood changes or stylistic alterations deprive it from harmonious perception. It rather reminds of bright flashes of memories united in one musical vessel, emphatic and frank; and the colorful and vivid cover art with perfect landscape also precisely reflects these associations. So without black metal’s constant bleakness and with solemn classical spirit “Lawn” proves its dual nature and celestial honesty.

Release date: March 6, 2021

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