Style: Progressive death metal, technical death metal (Mixed vocals, mostly harsh)
Recommended for fans of: Opeth, Ne Obliviscaris
Country: New Jersey, United States
Release date: 22 March 2025
Cooking up a band name is tougher than it seems—there are about as many artists on Metal Archives as there are words in the English language, so if you’re going for a snappy one-word moniker, you’re either gonna have to scour the Old Church Slavonic dictionary or fight it out to the death with a bunch of other gangly nerds. On Bandcamp alone, there are 59 artists named Atlas, and on Metal Archives, you can find 32 Legions, 30 Requiems, 27 Nemesises (Nemeses?), and more1. Take your pick, I guess, cause with numbers like that, at least one of them is bound to suit your tastes. This brings us to Descension, the latest release from today’s band of discussion, Citadel—no, not the symphonic black metal band from France, it’s the—not the melodic power metal band from Russia, either. They’re the—it’s not the album Citadel by Ne Oblivi–will you just let me finish?
This Citadel was built in New Jersey and indulges in the grandiloquent prog-death excess of bands like Ne Obliviscaris, Opeth, Dessiderium, and the like, making light work of aggressive drumming, technical-yet-melodic riffage, and grand, cinematic song structures. Descension tries its hand at several compositional frameworks: “Veil” and “A Shadow In the Mist” are all about iteration on a central motif whereas “Sorrow of the Thousandth Death” and “Crescent Dissentient” sometimes reprise melodies but are more interested in operating as a free-flowing stream of consciousness. “Under the Primrose” and “Downwards Ever” sit somewhere in the middle of these approaches, cycling through a set of established ideas across their runtimes while occasionally diverting into asides. Quiet interludes and outros are featured throughout to soften the blow of Descension’s expansive prog death assaults, utilizing any number of classical instruments from piano to flute to cello.
A swirling acoustic arpeggio is the artery of opener “Veil”, as the motif is hypnotically iterated upon in both loud and quiet moments. The ideas the track explores are a direct consequence of its establishing melody and act as the inevitable returning point after a detour. When this formula is followed, Descension‘s relatively lengthy compositions are quite easy to follow, and their success rides significantly on Citadel‘s ability to recontextualize ideas in engaging ways. “Veil” succeeds the most in this respect, showcasing some of Descension‘s most clever reimaginings and even ending with a satisfyingly plaintive acoustic outro. The first half of “A Shadow In the Mist” retraces “Veil” to an almost shocking degree, coming across more as “Veil 2” than as its own piece at first blush: a similar arpeggio centralizes the track, a similar blast beat section is used in the first verse, and it follows a similar overall progression. I’m not particularly mad because it retraces one of Descension‘s better tracks and near its midpoint it manages to carve out its own identity, but its presentation is without a doubt jarring.
Descension‘s results are much more mixed on its ‘stream-of-consciousness’ tracks: Citadel sometimes struggle to maintain focus when not homed in on a melodic nexus. “Sorrow of the Thousandth Death” in particular features many commanding high-energy riffs, opening on a blistering assault of tremolo picks and furious blasting, but when the guitars pull back, the track turns into a series of listenable but ultimately uninteresting ideas. This lack of focus even extends to the mastering, particularly in the verses: the extended dissonant chords that overlay the verses’ instrumentation are a production nightmare as they swallow up all the attention and make it difficult to focus on anything happening underneath them. Some tweaks in the production and a bit less going on in these verses would significantly help to give more direction to the great ideas that pepper “Sorrow of the Thousandth Death”. “Downwards Ever” is one of the more chaotic tracks, distinguishing itself with fast-paced melodeath riffs, flamenco guitar work, and even a discordant horn solo in its final half. The horns are brought back again, albeit much more restrained, in its quieter outro. It’s kind of a mess compositionally, as many of the ideas the track throws out don’t quite fit together nicely, but it’s admittedly a fun mess.
Citadel try their hand at a slew of compositional approaches on Descension, coalescing in a decent but flawed package. When tracks are sharply attuned to a single motif, they glide effortlessly across their runtime, but the more chaotic pieces struggle to maintain focus or get buried under mastering woes. A balance between more intense and more languid ideas adds a pleasant variety to Descension, and with a bit more polish and maturity, Citadel’s compositions can fully encompass the cinematic grandeur they strive towards.
Recommended tracks: Veil, Downwards Ever
You may also like: Dessiderium, Disillusion, Ubiquity, Piah Mater, Luna’s Call, Amiensus
Final verdict: 6/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Instagram | Metal-Archives page
Label: Independent
Citadel is:
– Ameer Aljallad (guitars, vocals, drums)
– Owen Deland (bass)
– Noah Romeo (guitars, synthesizers)
- Numbers gathered from this very helpful Invisible Oranges article. Long live the singular Necrogay! ↩︎
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