Doss – Depths (US-NJ)
Style: Melodeath/Groove (harsh vocals)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Instagram | Metal-Archives page
Review by: Dylan
It’s hard to be an underground artist. It doesn’t matter if you have loads of talent as a player and/or songwriter if you don’t have the resources to properly record it. Even though the digital era has helped us make it about as easy as it ever was, there’s still a lot of roadblocks; having a decent microphone, a place to record with it, not to mention those damn drums which will never be as good when they’re programmed. And even if you somehow got past all of those roadblocks, there’s the very last one; mixing and mastering. It’s a skill that has barely anything to do with everything else an artist does, and it takes people years of experience to finally nail down their style. You could hire a producer/mixer, but those will probably charge you double of what you’ll make with your album..
So I really can’t help but feel bad for Doss. When it comes to the music itself, these guys have come up with quite an unique album. It’s melodic, groovy, but also very frantic and chaotic, thanks to a ‘’blast-beat friendly’’ drummer. The vocalist clearly knows what he’s doing, showing a diverse range in his growls and the few cleaner passages. It all seems like a recipe for success but it’s all killed by the one thing I dedicated an entire paragraph to: the production.
It’s really hard to put my finger on it. It feels like those mp3s you had on your walkman that were downloaded off of 248kbps YouTube videos with a pitch change to avoid copyright. It sounds…. Muffled I’d say. The drums are far too loud, the vocals are distorted to oblivion, there’s barely any bass presence… it’s a shame. Behind all of these issues lies some very decent work, but it’s all drowned in this muffly tone that I just struggled to ignore throughout my experience.
If any member of Doss is reading all I’d advise you right now is to hire a producer or spend a lot of time learning how to do it yourselves. It is a VERY hard thing to do, so I really cannot blame you if this is the best you could come up with, but higher quality of production will get your musical blueprint very far.
Recommended tracks: Bioluminescence
Recommended for fans of: ???
Final verdict: 5.5/10
Alizarin – The Last Semblance (US-CA)
Style: Symphonic Prog/Traditional (clean vocals)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Official Website | Facebook | Instagram | RYM page
Review by: Sam
Blablabla Dream Theater blablabla Riverside blablabla review done. When talking about traditional prog metal bands like this it’s easy to just spam the obvious comparisons and be done with it. What I don’t like about that approach is how it homogenizes the genre, because that’s really what it is. Just like power metal or heavy metal, the traditional prog metal sound is a genre with defining tropes and characteristics. Within those tropes one can vary a bit, but escaping comparisons to other bands usually means leaving the genre all together. So whenever I listen to this genre, I approach it as I do a heavy metal release: hoping the band can nail the genre’s best tropes. Alizarin, on the whole, does this pretty well.
It immediately struck me how pretty their sound is. The focus of this band lies on the pretty melodies and they deliver these very well. They are in no hurry to climax or speed up the pace significantly, so they take the time to develop their melodies at a walking pace. Like the best of 70s prog the sound of the record is very warm. Be it the retro keyboard sounds, the frequent acoustics or the spaced out, crooning singing. To me it revoked the image of dreaming off in a nice afternoon nap in the shade on a hot summer day. It gets more intense at times, but never without leaving that dream-like state. The Last Semblance feels like an imaginary journey in a dream. One time you’re flying on a dragon, but both you are high on weed so it’s still all merry and the clouds are pink. Who cares if the dragon kills some stray goblins on the way? That’s just the way of things. Alizarin don’t care.
As you might have guessed I’m a fan of how this record sounds sonically. Aside from sounding very warm, the mix is really nice, giving enough room for each instrument to shine and making sure they sound good too. I would have liked the bass to be a little louder in the mix, but you can hear it pretty easily still so it’s only a minor complaint. I’m a fan of the songwriting too. The album plods along nicely. It’s not earth-shattering technicality, but there’s always something tasteful happening to keep you immersed. Especially the synth playing is lovely. Avelino Ramirez did a great job. The atmosphere he creates is lovely, his piano lines are gorgeous and whenever he goes for a more straightforward prog metal patch approach the melody line just works. He’s so good on the album in fact, that it tends to overshine the contribution of the other lead instrument, being the guitar by band leader Josh Kay. The acoustics are great, but the metal parts are relatively standard. It’s serviceable, but I wished Josh would have varied his playing more in that respect. Too often he’s just playing a standard strumming riff or following whatever Avelino is doing on the keys. Speaking of Josh, he also does the vocals. Those are… questionable. It’s a throaty crooning that’s just devoid of energy and variety in delivery. I think it fits the laid back sound of the album, but there is a lot of ground that could still be covered vocally. I was listening to Haken’s latest album Virus the other day and it struck me how much more variation Ross Jennings put in his vocal melodies than this guy who’s basically wailing all the time. Give me some staccato sometime man, or maybe some acapella, ANYTHING.
So that about wraps it up. The Last Semblance is a neat little record on the whole, bringing a very warm and melodic sound to the table that will surely get a nod of approval from older proggers. Some songs tend to end rather abruptly and I imagine the singing to be divisive, but for the rest the songwriting is mostly excellent, making it easy to sit through despite being 58 minutes. Seeing how this is only their first album with vocals I only expect improvement from here. Do recommend.
Recommended tracks: Elegy Simulacra, Velvet Margin, Heirloom
Recommended for fans of: Riverside, Dream Theater, 70s prog
Final verdict: 7/10
Aseitas – False Peace (US-OR)
Style: Death/Experimental (harsh vocals)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Official Website | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives page
Review by: Chris
I think we’ve seen recently that there is a good, new trend of these semi-experimental death and black metal bands actually being able to exceed their previous sounds with each record (looking at you Imperial Triumphant). Before listening to False Peace I went back and listened to Aseitas’s debut to see what they came from. I had remembered seeing the name a couple times, and quite liked their debut. Diving into this new record they most definitely have improved, expanded, and exceeded their first bar.
I will say this is a bit hard of an album to fully pin down. It kind of has a flair of if Car Bomb was more into death stylings, but also had the post-metal and experimental leanings of an Ulcerate. Aside from generalizations based on other bands, this album has some truly mind twisting breakdown rhythms, nasty soundscapes, and a flair for the noise/post-metal flourishes in between. The album begins with an intro noisescape before letting its true colors begin to fly on “Scalded”, which tears apart the speakers you are listening on with twisted rhythms and shrieking guitars. Other early highlights include “House of Turin” with its slightly unexpected post-metal, laid back bridge. “Chrism” is the track that most hits the Meshuggah/Car Bomb influences with its herta laden breakdowns. After that though,the album slightly alters itself into having 3 epic length tracks split by small interludes of varying types.
The switch in this way lost me a bit and made me lose the pace of the album a bit. While these long songs themselves are great, such as “Spite/Sermon” altering the main motif riff numerous times, each more messed up than the last, this is where the album did begin to drag a bit for me. Granted, I have been spoiled by these super tight 30-35 minute releases lately, so getting through this 70+ minute album did feel a bit cumbersome compared to the others. While it is definitely good, it felt like some things could have been cut a bit to streamline or focus the album more. I enjoy the forays into noise and such on the album, but some of the piano exits from songs or the entire 4 minute noise track just feel very last minute additions to me. Most bands in this general sphere rarely surpass the 55 minute mark or so because it can be a bit grating to get through. I also kind of felt like the intro to the album did not really give me any indication of what would happen, and it might have been preferable to just drop into the chaos immediately, and save the noise experimentation for partway through the album. It’s definitely a great album, just one you need to be prepared to sit down and invest an hour plus chunk for.
Recommended tracks: House of Turin, Chrism, Spite/Sermon
Recommended for fans of: Ulcerate, Car Bomb (kinda), Meshuggah, Gojira
Final verdict: 7.5/10
Талион – 8 (Russia)
Style: Prog/Power/Rock/Music (clean, Russian vocals)
Related links: Spotify | VKontakte | Facebook | Metal-Archives page
Review by: Matt
I don’t know how we found these guys, considering how hard it is to gather any information on them when I’m actually trying. Talion are a Russian-language band that don’t quite fit into any niche; they’re proggy without being flashy, and heavy without being very metal. Sometimes this album feels like hard rock, sometimes it’s power, and sometimes Dream Theater-lite. It’s weird in its variety, yet not weird enough for it to be entirely notable. The writing is pretty solid throughout, not too ambitious, but always throwing in a colorful note here and there. I guess what I mean to say is… it’s good?
Seriously, I don’t know what to make of this band, as they have no clear “schtick,” yet the raw compositional ingredients are pretty nice, and the songs are always fun. They’re not that catchy in the sense of big choruses, but there’s always some tasty synth texture or colorful chord change going on (man, that organ on track 5 hits the spot.) No one here is exactly a virtuoso – see the sometimes-flat lead guitars – but they all serve the compositions well. Clocking in at 46 minutes, it’s just about the perfect length, too – a light, unpretentious listen that has maturity and depth, but doesn’t ask too much of you.
Come to think of it, the problem here is that the album’s big noteworthy feature is just “the notes” – both the only thing that ultimately matters, and a totally crappy headline for reviews and blurbs. Sorry, guys. Just listen to the damn thing… If you like melodic prog, you’re sure to find something worthwhile in there.
Recommended tracks: 138 Au, Отражения, Зов пустоты
Recommended for fans of: Fates Warning, Cloudscape, Misth
Final verdict: 7/10
Hoax of Upsala – Initium (Poland)
Style: Metalcore (mixed vocals)
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Review by: Tyler
I’ve always prided myself on pretty much skipping the whole metalcore thing from 2007-2012. Every band sounded identical to every other band, they just did different chords in a slightly different picking pattern until the song was over. My scene was lousy with them, and so was yours. I didn’t have any interest in venturing that way. But, gosh darn it, it’s 2020, the world’s on fire, and cool new music is hard to come by. So, I decided to take a chance on a metalcore album that came out in July 2020. Who knows, maybe the genre has changed since I wrote it off all those years ago. Maybe, just maybe, it was time for me to start liste- no it sounds just like it used to.
I don’t know how Hoax of Upsala did it, but they managed to perfectly capture the cliche’d, tired sound and angst that I thought was long dead. The vocals are just like you remember, the riffs are the same as they used to be, and there is almost zero personality involved. On subsequent listens of the songs, I thought I was going crazy because every song sounded like the one before like I was stuck in a loop, but no, sure enough the album was progressing. There just wasn’t anything to remember about anything I had heard. I can’t tell you anything specific about any of the songs on here, they just exist and are thrown in with the rest of the metalcore noise.
All is not lost however, the vocalist, as general as the performance is, does a pretty great job. There is a certain Gojira-esque quality in his voice that could lend itself to some other projects with hopefully more personality. Otherwise, this listen is unnecessary.
Recommended tracks: Clean was alright
Recommended for fans of: any metalcore?
Final verdict: 2.5/10
Fractal Sun – Turmoil (Costa Rica)
Style: Symphonic (mixed, female vocals)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives page
Review by: Andrew
Fractal Sun is a brand-new progressive metal band from Costa Rica. Putting out the first single from the album back in 2018, they finally released their debut album Turmoil last month. I don’t know if the long delay between single and album is the result of any turmoil in the band itself but let’s not speculate.
Turmoil defies genre classification. At first listen, the symphonic elements were what stood out to me most. Symphonic metal a la Epica? Sign me up. Then, I noticed the heaviness and djenty sound in the riffs underlying the symphonics. Symphonic metal is not known for having particularly heavy riffage, so this was a nice surprise. Harsh vocals in a few of the songs? Even better. Upon my first listen of Turmoil, I was so pleasantly surprised with the huge variety of influence and sound Fractal Sun took on that I almost immediately went back for a second listen to try to absorb more of it. Seamlessly swapping between grandiose symphonic excess to heavy prog metal, Turmoil seldom stays in the same place for more than a few minutes.
Something I always feel the need to point out is highly audible bass simply because of how rare it is, especially in a genre known for its wall-of-sound production. When I realized I could actually hear the bass even over every single layer of instrumentation and orchestration, it made me far more interested.
Let’s talk vocals for a minute. Primary vocalist Hellen Quirós has a very operatic voice, seemingly suitable for this style of symphonic metal. However, I don’t feel like her voice worked as well as it could have, especially with how often Turmoil veered away from its roots. As long as there was epic orchestration, Quirós’s voice worked great, but as soon as a stylistic shift began, her voice failed to play well with the music, sounding disjointed and stylistically apart from the underlying music. Although, the occasional harsh vocals worked great whenever they appeared, helping to work against my criticisms of the cleans.
Production-wise, the entire album sounded shallow throughout. While each instrument sounded good and independent, the overall sound was dry and poorly mastered. At times, it almost felt like I was listening through a glass window – it was not muddled but it was dry and almost tinny. Despite the production shortcomings, Turmoil sounds good enough for a self-produced debut album and I won’t take too much off because of this common issue.
Overall, Fractal Sun have managed to blend many other styles into symphonic metal and create a grandiose concept album. The stylistic hops and jumps play well with the underlying musical core in a way that makes this album feel like something far greater than just another symphonic metal album.
Recommended tracks: Dark Project III: Lost, Visions I: Noxious Arrival, My Demise
Recommended for fans of: Epica, Nightwish, Destiny Potato
Final verdict: 7.5/10
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