There is something about the album artwork by Samuel Nelson that fixed me about this sophomore by this French band. I’ve stared at it and analysed a number of times and I’ve even got it as my computer desktop image, whether it’s the art styling landscape I like or just the serenity it has going I’m not sure but one thing is for certain, it matches the scintillating musicianship that exudes from these songs from start to finish. The hues, contrasts and blends within the eight sonic compositions are utterly delightful and mark a step up from the self-titled debut two years which saw the band utilising the shards of a technical deathcore assault. Here the band has smoothed those shards to record an album with dazzling arrangements that is far more ambitious with symphonic insertions and even some choral like vocal experimentations I found particularly enjoyable.
Opening with an elongated intro of sorts, ‘Harbinger Of Dismal Changes’ sets the scene with an emotively charged track with keyboards and dramatically fused melodicism before surging with blasted forays and deep vocal exhortations that flows into ‘Apocalypse’. Their sense of dramatic purpose is supreme here, creating ominous almost foreboding terror at times as the song shifts into Whitechapel like technicality, bombarding the listener with an onslaught but retaining excellent melody at the same time. The use of cleaner vocals is brilliantly deployed too right before a brilliant double bass avalanche that will hook you in.
Full deathcore rears up on ‘Suffering’ that mechanical styled flood you’re accustomed to in the genre before the blast beat ensues. The song pours one cool hook after another onto you infesting the song with groove as Fallujah sprang to mind here due to the technical virtuosity as my personal favourite of the album appears next, War’. This tornado of a song offers a straight up death metal posturing, with a guttural demolition that virtually disguises their deathcore credentials as some Nilesque ambience creeps into the mix. The superb pause was unexpected but brilliantly placed enabling the song smash its way back with incredible momentum.
The album has no gaps between the songs preferring to end most of the songs with quieter soundbites that link each song together as the title track crashes in with high velocity tactics. There is a dash of keyboards hinting at that symphonic backdrop as here the song is a bit different to the other tunes I’ve described that continues into ‘The Giant Tree’ with its semi-acoustic workout. The whispered like vocals work a treat here, adding a level of texture to the song that gradually morph into a gravelly tone as the song evolves into a penetrating heaviness.
Another cracking track is ‘Call Of Yggdrasil’ that again has a purer death metal backdrop where the tendrils of deathcore thread through it as a choral vocal is added superbly that even has a operatic tone to it. The song has a pulverising grandiosity saturated with dramatic poise as the deathcore pulse runs through it brilliantly making the song a standout leaving ‘Transcendence’ to conclude the release. With absolutely no finesse the song tears into the listener creating a colossal build up that leads into a fabulous riff break with left and right alternation. The ultra-deep vocal bark creates a monstrosity in the track as the guitar work is frenetic and technical but at the same time atmospheric within this slightly longer tune.
This might be within the deathcore sphere but it has so much more than that genre, mind-bending guitar work, brutalising songs and ambitious song constructs that fans of both deathcore and death metal should appreciate.
(8.5/10 Martin Harris)
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