Review: Atavistia – Cosmic Warfare

Style: Epic Symphonic Melodeath (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Wintersun, Brymir, Æther Realm
Review by: Andy
Country: Finland
Release date: April 21, 2023

“Damn it,” you mutter as you and your intergalactic ship accidentally fall beyond the event horizon of an unimaginable supermassive black hole. Eons pass by without you feeling a second of them, and once you emerge from your journey through Time and space, you glance around at the Earth you left so long ago. Everything strangely feels the same; you notice your globe on the bookshelf in your room next to your copy of A Dream of Spring. It’s only when you notice that Canada and Finland have switched places that you realize you’re in an alternate universe. WAIT… was that A Dream of goddamn Spring?? Frantically, tensely you pull up your streaming app of choice and… Wintersun have finally released Time II!!! Unfortunately, I haven’t fallen through any supermassive black holes, so my Canadian friends Atavistia’s third opus, Cosmic Warfare, is the best I’ve got. And at this point, Cosmic Warfare is better than Time II could ever aspire to be.  

I’m sure Atavistia popped some champagne when Wintersun released their first song in nearly six years for it to be a paywalled, glorified djent guitar demo that wasn’t even produced well. As Jari Mäenpää loses more of his once rabid fanbase with each passing shitpost, more and more people will be searching for anything to fill the Time II shaped hole in their hearts–myself included. Enter Atavistia, who undoubtedly want this niche to be theirs so that they can have all of their fans’ dirty sauna money in their pockets next. And damn do they earn it with Cosmic Warfare. Vocalist Matt Sippolla channels his best Jari impersonation to an eerie extent, both the blackened rasps and epic cleans sounding straight off of Time I–down to the Scandinavian accent somehow despite the band’s Canadian locale. Beyond the vocals, the heavily synthestrated, layered production, epic blackened power metal, and purely awesome song structures really bring me a comforting dose of nostalgia of back when I thought Jari would release iconic music again instead of “Enter Sandman” covers on Instagram. Now that’s enough bashing Jari (if there can be enough of that) and of comparing Atavistia to Wintersun (except any terrible puns later on) because while the band does sound like everybody’s favorite hateable Finn, Cosmic Warfare has so, so much to adore about it according to its own merits.  

After the obligatory instrumental opener, “Cosmic Warfare” explodes outwards in blast beats and black metal vocals. Everything sounds a bit loud due to the excessive instrumental layering, yet triumphant, bombastic melodies still worm their way through the speakers continuously. Whether the massive clean vocal choruses or the galloping, power metal shred-fest of the lead guitar parts, the indulgently vibrant tonality of everything overwhelms the senses. Each and every moment on the album is stuffed with decadent–almost saccharine–harmonizing and melodies. And so every second oozes sheer epicness like a giant space battle at the brink of a black hole. The cheesy, extravagant lyrics dealing with inky voids and space wars and such are badass and ripen the overall package; the absurdly consistent blast beats give everything an extra boost of levity, and I’m a sucker for any blasty stuff over clean sections; the choral synths backing everything are simply euphoria-inducing. In the sea of standout moments, the final epic chant in “Forgotten Silence” stands above, nearly as orgasmic as “Toward Truth and Reconciliation” by Xanthochroid, and the sublime harmonized solo near the end of “Divine Destruction” similarly induces some serious frisson. 

The neverending bombast comes at a cost: My brain is simply overwhelmed. As every second drips in triumphant splendor with very few refreshing chill sections, my brain just can’t process much more after a while. Atavistia may have exceeded the awesomeness threshold. The reliance on a big pause to give a syncopated chanting lilt to all the clean choruses also feels played out by halfway through the album, but regardless, the choruses are still as humongous as any epic melodeath fan could ever hope for. Each epic climax becomes more and more tiring as the album continues, especially with all the heavily layered orchestrated synths, so more sections with breathing room would be ideal to prepare me for all the badass riffs and solos and choruses. Laying off the gas for a second could only help Atavistia. 

Personal beliefs about scoring clone albums aside, Cosmic Warfare stands out by its own virtuosic performances and killer songwriting. Cosmic Warfare is not perfect, but it improves on Atavistia’s previous album, The Winter Way, elegantly, cleaning up songwriting woes and fixing the (still loud) production. As the younger version of that album, you could say it’s the son of winter (and stars)? Only when time fades away will I stop the bad puns. Ok that’s the last one, I swear. Go forth and check out Atavistia; nothing else has come this close to replacing Wintersun in a decade, and I’ve tried all of the usual suspects.

Recommended tracks: Ethereal Wanderer, Divine Destruction, Forgotten Silence
You may also like: Suotana, Xanthochroid
Final verdict: Time II/X (8/10)

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Official Website | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube | Metal-Archives page

Label: Blood Blast Distribution – Website | Facebook

Atavistia is:
– Matt Sippola (vocals, guitars)
– Dalton Meaden (guitars)
– Max Sepulveda (drums)
– D’wayne Murray (bass)