Review: Alustrium – A Moment to Silence

Style: Progressive Metal, Death Metal (harsh vocals)
Review by: Evan
Country: Pennsylvania, United States
Release date: June 18th, 2021

While listening to this album and preparing for my review, I began to hear rumblings in the prog world about this album. Hyperboles were audible around every corner. Thankfully, I am entirely unbiased and refuse to accept any evidence or suggestion to the contrary. You will find neither a quick, thoughtless embrace of the consensus nor knee-jerk contrarianism, given that I am wholly immune to being influenced by the opinions of others. But I assume you are not here to read sarcastic jabs directed at both myself and review-writing generally; rather, you are here for the music, so I will digress no longer.

Diving straight into the style of Alustrium, A Moment to Silence is one part technical death metal, one part progressive death metal, and one part melodic death metal, with a surprisingly even balance between the three. Overall, the sound of this album is highly reminiscent of bands like Rivers of Nihil and Black Crown Initiate but does not always shy away from the fast technical riffing of modern tech bands like Obscura. I actually struggled quite a bit at following site guidelines and only picking 3 bands for the FFOs since there are a lot of bands that sound similar to the music here. While this could be interpreted as a dig, Alustrium plays a fairly well-crafted and refined version of this trendy modern death metal style (insomuch as you can ever call any form of death metal trendy).

Now, it is time to prove to you that if you like the other bands on the FFOs, Alustrium is worth your time. The greatest strength of Alustrium is compositional, namely how the shifts between the three riffing styles (melo, tech, and prog) fit together quite seamlessly in each track. Great attention is paid to ensure every track is not only cohesive, but also includes enough of a balance of aggression and hooks to please diverse fans. The drumming also exhibits a variety of styles, matching the dueling guitars through each of their twists and turns.   

Now that you will certainly check out the album, obviously due to my immaculate persuasive and descriptive skill, it is time to do what every critic claims to hate but secretly loves: criticize. The strongest criticism of the album is that it is longer than it needs to be. An album that is an hour long needs to have one of two things: an extremely pervasive atmosphere that requires that length to build, or a myriad of interesting ideas spread out across the tracks. While the tracks are not extremely similar, they do start to blur together around minute 40, and the atmosphere is not captivating enough to remain enticing. Another excuse for length could be overall originality, but as mentioned, Alustrium is fairly by the books. Also, finally admitting I am biased, while the vocals are technically proficient, I do not like deathcore style vocals, so that certainly affects my judgement of this album, as much as I try to avoid it. 

Gripes aside, modern prog death fans will find a lot to love in Alustrium’s latest release. Granted, some of the hyperboles, and some of the extremely early AOTY remarks are certainly overstated. 

Recommended tracks: This Hollow Ache, The Accuser, A Monument to Silence
Recommended for fans of: Black Crown Initiate, Rivers Of Nihil, Obscura
Final verdict: 7/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives page
Label: Unique Leader Records – Bandcamp | Website | Facebook

Alustrium is:
– Jerry Martin (lead vocals)
– Chris Kelly (guitars/vocals)
– Mike DeMaria (guitars)
– Kevin Penny (bass)
– Kevin Corkran (drums)