Style: Progressive Death Metal, Symphonic/Blackened Deathcore (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Fallujah, Rivers of Nihil Kardashev
Review by: Cooper
Country: US-WI
Release date: 23 June, 2023
Over the course of reviewing an album or EP, I will listen to it many times and in many different circumstances. One listen usually sees me taking notes so I’ll remember the specifics of songs and such when I actually get to writing my review, and other listens may see me treating the album simply as background music as I go on a walk or complete other tasks. No matter what, though, I always ensure that the first listen receives my unbroken attention. After all, it’s only fair that I, as a reviewer, contribute an unbroken 40-60 minutes to an album that took its creators an undoubtedly countless amount of hours more to write and record (and I wonder why critics get a bad rap). It is during this first listen, most often, where my enjoyment is either nurtured or destroyed. After all, the tree can only fall one way; do I like the album, or do I not? Except, it’s not always so simple. And thus we come to Vermillion Dawn’s Boreal Valley.
If someone were to have described Boreal Valley, the new EP from Wisconsin based metallers who exploded onto the scene with last year’s full length VVitch Den, to me before I had listened to it, the conversation would surely have ended with me drooling at the mouth and itching to hear it as soon as I could. They’d tell me, “It’s blackened technical death metal/deathcore,” and I’d blush. They’d say, “It’s faster and heavier than anything off their debut,” and I’d probably start to sweat. “Its title is a Dark Souls reference (At least as far as I can tell)!” I’d faint, the gnarliest riffs I could possibly imagine echoing in my head yet still meek in comparison to what would surely grace my ears when I awoke. It’s probably for the best though, that I went into Boreal Valley without any preconceptions because when I emerged from my first listen I was, to put it simply, confused.
Everything that occurs on Boreal Valley, from the intriguingly choppy blast beats, a la Rivers of Nihil, that usher in “Bestial Lullaby” to the triumphant, eponymous closer, is technically sound. The musicianship is off the charts – especially the bass– the songs have interesting and varied structures, and I’m constantly reminded of other bands in the genre that I love like Fallujah and Irreversible Mechanism. Yet despite all this, I never found myself really enjoying this EP; it would simply wash over like a spring breeze, pleasant enough while it lasted yet leaving me ultimately unaffected. I’ve thought long and hard about why I can’t seem to enjoy this release despite knowing I should, and even though the reasons for one’s discontent are often ambiguous, I have come up with two possible reasons: the EP’s mix and its originality.
I can already hear you saying, “Ah yes! Citing the mix: the classic music reviewer move when they don’t know what to say about a “meh” album,” and to some extent you’d be right. But because I have already put so much thought into why I can’t latch onto this release, I feel it’s only fair to mention the mix as the culprit of my dissatisfaction. After all, it’s far from perfect; all instruments seem veiled behind a fog of strings and ambience which leads to moments where the vocals, such as the cleans ending “Mourning Star”, don’t seem to gel with the rest of the music, and I certainly wouldn’t argue with anyone who calls this EP “brick-walled.” To the mix’s credit, though, the bass on this album sounds absolutely amazing, always just perfectly audible over the guitar and vocals yet never overpowering. It is a beacon of light in a vast field of gray.
That brings us then to the issue of Boreal Valley’s originality. To put it simply, this is a release that I struggle to describe honestly without comparison. Don’t get me wrong; Vermilion Dawn have their own sound, but that sound, at least to my ears, seems more like a conglomerate of ideas and textures already conquered by other bands than it does anything unique. This point is then exacerbated by the fact that the only reason I remember any specific musical moments off this release is because they reminded me of songs by other bands. It once again washes over me yet leaves me the same as I was before.
If it seems like those gripes do not align with the score below, you’d be right. For most other releases they would be nitpicks, hardly worth a mention, but for a release like Boral Valley that, despite countless listens, still seems to elude my enjoyment for no other apparent reasons, it is the gripes that rise to the surface. Perhaps I’ll listen to this EP in a few months and I’ll suddenly like it, or at the very least realize why I don’t, but in the meantime I’ll be listening to other death metal.
Recommended tracks: Mourning Star, Bestial Lullaby
You may also like: Hath, Last of Lucy, Irreversible Mechanism
Final verdict: 5/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | YouTube | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives Page
Label: Independent
Vermillion Dawn is:
– James Fetterhoff (vocals)
– Cody Stonebrook (all instruments, vocals)
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