For the uninitiated, Crimson Shadows’ sound is what would have happened if DragonForce had been mainstays in the late 90’s / early 00’s Finnish melodic death metal scene, but with a North American metalcore-adjacent sense of chunk and polish tailor-made for the 2009 Rockstar Energy Mayhem Festival. Their blend of sugary lead guitars and rhythmic violence is peak Dumb Guy Metal, and as The Dumbest Guy, I’m thrilled that this new album recaptures the formula perfectly. To compare Crimson Shadows’ album-to-album trajectory to that of DragonForce, Whispers of War is to 2014’s Kings Among Men as the first half of Sonic Firestorm is to the second half of Sonic Firestorm. Had this record been disc two of a Kings Among Men double album, not a single eye would have been batted. Everything is intact: Big riffs, bigger melodies, and ceaseless double bass drives staunchly locked to 200bpm. My biggest worry was that this unshaken formula would feel obligatory, but Whispers of War’s sheer caffeinated vigor is authentic and as undeniably addictive as ever.

Whispers of War’s quality is neck-and-neck with Kings Among Men, even surpassing it in certain areas in its battle to justify its own existence. Where Crimson Shadows’ preceding album was at its best in scattered instances of monumental grandeur, these new compositions are more compelling in their moment-to-moment execution. No song on Whispers of War feels as singularly massive as, say, the chorus of “Dawn of Vengeance,” yet its riffs feel more gleefully barbaric across the board, stampeding rowdily through verses in tracks like “Guardians” and “Rise of the Fallen Soul.” Elsewhere, the band weaves Wintersunny blastbeats into the proceedings (“Whispers of War,” “Battle Hard 2: Battle Harder”) in jolts of welcome variety. The more Whispers of War sits with me, the more I believe it superior to its younger sibling, even if I love all of Crimson Shadows’ children equally.¹

What gives Whispers of War the edge as my new favorite Crimson Shadows record are its improved performances across the board. The band formed in 2006, yet in a mythically rare occurrence, has maintained their starting lineup, bassist Alex Snape being the sole exception. Guitarist / clean vocalist Greg Rounding has a notably greater control and expanded range during the record’s excellent choruses, and his and Ryan Hofing’s dueling guitar solos are elevated in both complexity and memorability. Harsh vocalist Jimi Maltais, meanwhile, remains a motherfucking powerhouse and one of the most underrated growlers in extreme metal. The only instrumental disappointment comes in the mixing of drummer Cory Hofing’s kitwork. His cymbal patterns are ear-ticklingly catchy, yet his kit’s tone and presence have been flattened in generic modern metal fashion in a downgrade from its thunderous nature on Kings Among Men.

I love this band. Maybe it’s because I had my old Xbox 360 loaded up with ripped DragonForce and Children of Bodom CDs, but to me, their music sounds like a Halo 3-branded can of Mountain Dew Game Fuel in the best possible way. There is a youthful earnestness to Crimson Shadows’ music that has become increasingly difficult to come by, and the fact that they have picked up exactly where they left off a decade ago with a record this good speaks volumes of their enthusiasm in being true to themselves and the music they love. I’d be thrilled to hear Crimson Shadows expand their sound in new directions following Whispers of War, but for the time being, this is an exceedingly rare instance where more of the same is the ideal outcome. There may be better records released in 2025, but I sincerely doubt I will spin any of them harder, louder, or with more jubilance than this one.

Rating: Great
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: PCM
Label: Self-Release
Websites: crimsonshadows.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/CrimsonShadowsBand
Releases Worldwide: July 25th, 2025

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My chief criticisms of Cruce Signatus were levied at its lack of variety in both tone and tempo, and II goes so hard in addressing the former that it somehow absolves itself of the latter. II does feature a handful of tempo shake-ups in its back third, but the record so often drastically departs from its predecessor’s uniformly villainous tone as to not really need them. Opener “Conversio Militiae – Viam Justorum” debuts in expected fashion, all dramatic chords and ascending arpeggios invoking a classical idea of Hell, before gracefully pivoting into a movement that I can only describe as “1990’s JRPG End Credits Theme”-core. Swaths of II feel overtly uplifting, and even when it doesn’t, tracks like “Milites Christi II – Gesta Francorum” are so whimsical and dynamic as to substantially differentiate this record from Cruce Signatus’ first act. Simultaneously, II feels so loyal to Cruce Signatus’ established identity that no one could mistake it for a project under any other name. As an expansion of that identity, II is revelatory.

II is full of unexpected victories for a project with an already impressive foundation, with one of the most surprising being just how well it succeeds as a standalone experience. Cruce Signatus’ first act split the difference between soundtrack and traditional album in its construction, and while II retains the soundtrack vibes, its individual tracks feel more self-contained. Each has a distinct identity, resulting in a tonal trajectory that gives the record a pronounced overarching structure akin to a classic “hero’s journey” narrative. While the mid-album cuts (namely “Milites Christi” I & II) feel gritty and combative, the bookends exhibit neon-drenched euphoria, with the massive closing track “Poena” making for what feels like the most gratifying possible conclusion at the end of the journey, ominous stinger foreshadowing Act III notwithstanding.

Beyond Cruce Signatus’ structural and tonal innovations, II just straight up fucking jams. While bearing plenty of introspective moments, II represents an exponentially more energetic, almost power metal-fied take on this project’s sound over its predecessor, which is honestly difficult to wrap my head around considering that it’s also unquestionably the more varied of the two records. It helps, then, that II’s high-end feels notably less shrill than that of Cruce Signatus’ debut, though parts of “Pro Emendatione Malefactorum” occasionally grate through loftily ambitious reprisal. I do find that the overall mix feels less punchy and impactful this time around, but as the electronic soundscape remains lush and engaging, minor production gripes hardly detract from the experience.

II is such an impressive evolutionary leap for Cruce Signatus that even its micro adjustments impress. That each track now naturally blends into the next, eschewing the debut’s odd fades to total silence, is nearly as strong a signal of this project’s growth as its bold leaps into unprecedented emotional territory. Moreover, II fully assures me that this project has more than enough juice to play out its full, four-act structure. If Frazer’s ambitions are this high halfway through, I’m ecstatic to hear where this project goes by its end. Just don’t wait until then to jump in, because II stands shoulder to shoulder with the best records of the burgeoning synth metal scene on its own merits. Oh, and I’ll retract what I said three years ago: I’ll take another three Pillaging Villagers records, please.

Rating: 4.0/5.0
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: PCM
Label: Self Release
Websites: crucesignatus.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/crucesignatusband
Releases Worldwide: April 4th, 2025

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That sound’s intricately textured density remains, for me, one of the main selling points of The Great Old Ones. As with prior works, Kadath is a record informed by its atmosphere, that otherworldly feeling that the layers of reverb-drenched guitars obscure endless depths. That this aesthetic stays largely intact despite Kadath’s riff-forward nature is impressive. Opener “Me, the Dreamer” serves as a microcosm of this balance, its unpredictable shifts conjuring a sense of unease as the band explores territory seemingly inspired equally by Immortal and Blood Incantation. Kadath’s breadth of variety is markedly wider than any prior The Great Old Ones album, as tactful implementation of death metal heft and even gothic rock (See: “In the Mouth of Madness”) regularly serve a purpose. This makes Kadath a potentially ideal jumping off point for anyone new to the band who might otherwise be turned away by their post-black reputation.

As impressive as this evolution sounds on paper, Kadath’s bid at a more immediately gratifying take on The Great Old Ones sound leaves me feeling partially dissatisfied. I’ve enjoyed every moment I’ve spent with this record, but I rarely found myself hypnotically sinking into its atmosphere as I did with EOD and especially Cosmicism. Its regular tonal and structural songwriting pivots are superficially fun, yet often illogical in the scope of a full composition. The fifteen-minute “Leng,” while frequently beautiful, fails to link up its disparate sections in a fulfilling fashion. Conversely, at other times The Great Old Ones seem to consciously play things safe, relying on more straightforward (yet still lengthy) structures that lack rhythmic bite or a compelling atmosphere (“Astral Void (End of the Dream)”). It’s all good, but most of Kadath is merely just good, and I can’t help but wonder whether the shift in the majority of the band’s lineup is partially to blame.

The lineup shift is acutely felt behind the drum kit, as I detected the departure of Léo Isnard – one of my favorite drummers in black metal – in Kadath’s music even before reading the details on The Great Old Ones’ new lineup. It should be emphasized that new drummer Julian Deana is responsible for some of the album’s best passages; the power metal-like double bass drives in “Under the Sign of Koth,” for instance, help make that track one of Kadath’s best. Yet where the drum performances seemed to proactively shape the music on past releases, Kadath’s drumming feels more reactive and less adventurous. Deana’s performances are flawless and completely impressive on a technical level, but this seemingly unintentional shift in rhythmic philosophy has, for me, altered the shape of the band’s music. Kadath also sounds muddier from a production standpoint than its predecessor, and while some level of obscurity is crucial to The Great Old Ones’ atmosphere, this record’s many low-end riffs often blur together as a result.

I realize this review feels largely negative considering my insistence on Kadath’s goodness, but I’ve twice written about the reasons why I love The Great Old Ones’ music, and most of those reasons remain intact with this record. Kadath merely fails to live up to my personal expectations of what I’ve come to expect from this band, and as such, its shortcomings feel all the more glaring. Make no mistake: Kadath is a frequently captivating marriage of black metal riff craft and distinct artistic intent that could only come from The Great Old Ones. I’m not in love with all of its choices, but I’d rather this band present me with an ambitious pivot such as this over a hypothetical Cosmicism II.

Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Season of Mist
Websites: thegreatoldonessom.bandcamp.com | thegreatoldonesband.com | facebook.com/thegreatoldones
Releases Worldwide: January 24th, 2025

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Explaining what DragonKnight sounds like would be markedly less expeditious than describing who they sound like, as Legions sees the band feasting upon a veritable buffet of inspirations. A bespoke influence seemingly accompanies each track; Gloryhammer (“Dead Kings in the Grave”), Beast in Black (“Sword of the Northern Lights”), and mercifully not Alestorm but rather Running Wild (“Pirates, Bloody Pirates!”) serve as some of Legions’ more obvious sources of inspiration. While DragonKnight’s aesthetic varies widely across this album, it’s all tied together with an overarching symphonic flair that keeps the proceedings from sounding overly disjointed. Moreover, Legions sounds technically competent and professional, traits which should be a given but are too often scarce in the genre. For many power metal fans, the level of execution alone may be satisfying.

Dragonknight may presently be more concerned with emulating the successes of modern power metal than innovating the game. Still, I also get the sense that the band had a ton of fun making Legions, so it manages not to tip my cynicism meter to the red. I do, however, find myself increasingly annoyed with this album for a potentially more damning reason: It’s just kinda bland. There are certainly highlights between “The Imperator”‘s Dream Evil-goes-symphonic march and “The Revelation²“‘s condensed galloping rush, but much of Legions lacks urgency and excitement. Instrumental flair is absent outside of the frequently excellent guitar solos, and while the melodies are generally pleasant, Dragonknight fails to capitalize on their solid foundation with the giant melodic swings that define the genre. Legions isn’t forgettable, per se, but it fails to make an impression where it matters most.

Legions hits me with all the force of a lukewarm bucket of water at least in part due to its production choices. The album sounds quite nice from a technical perspective, carrying a meatier low-end presence than most power metal records allow which effectively balances the symphonic bombast. The instruments themselves, however, lack tonal character, their generic metallic edge failing to cut through the swaths of synths. Singer and sole named member Lord Salo Khan (Mikael Salo, Everfrost³) also lacks power in many scenarios, with his voice failing to deliver a convincing presence of power in Legions’ most melodic tracks, namely “Storm Bringer.” At other times, however, he excels; the conviction with which he delivers the lyric “Sailing ships with great dexterity!” goes a long way in making “Pirates Bloody Pirates!” another early highlight of Dragonknight’s career.

I reference Dragonknight in context with a hypothetical future as it’s one that I hope comes to fruition. Their debut left me with a stronger first impression than this review and its score implies, but I ultimately found Legions lacking in staying power, my mind struggling not to wander towards the dozens of better records it reminds me of as I ventured past my first couple of spins. Dragonknight has the talent and songwriting chops to excel on future outings, but they need to work on identifying and honing their strengths rather than spreading themselves thin with an overly ambitious scope. If Dragonknight can succeed in this regard, they may well find themselves on equal footing with their peers. As it stands today, they are a decent imitation of their influences, but sincere flattery can only carry them so far.

Rating: 2.5/5.0
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: 256 kbps mp3
Label: Scarlet Records
Websites: scarletrecords.bandcamp.com/album/legions | dragonknightband.com | facebook.com/dragonknightband
Releases Worldwide: January 17th, 2025

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Anyone who knows me will know that I attended 2024’s Mad With Power festival in Madison, Wisconsin for one reason: Fellowship. While the opportunity to engage in lowercase fellowship with various friends and colleagues was enticing, I also couldn’t pass up the opportunity to experience the Fellowship: England’s rapidly up-and-coming power metal band, and an act that has been very special for me since their earliest days, performing their first-ever show in North America. Likewise, I wasn’t about to miss my chance to sit down with Matthew Corry (vocals and lyrics) and Callum Tuffen (drums and songwriting) and pick their brains about what makes Fellowship tick. On the day prior to this interview, I was fortunate enough to witness the band debut three new songs alongside the cover art and tracklist for their upcoming sophomore record, The Skies Above Eternity, which gave us much more to talk about than I had anticipated.

I was escorted backstage to meet Matt and Cal (by none other than Ty Christian, vocalist of Lords of the Trident and founder of Mad With Power), and was genuinely surprised to find that Matt, the little hobbit man who lives in my phone and sings directly to my soul through my earbuds, is basically as tall as I am – and I’m 6’3”. He and Callum greeted me as warmly as one might expect from a band famous for songs of camaraderie and self worth. When I told Matt that he and I had spoken on occasion through Twitter DMs, he responded with a delightfully genuine “Oh, right! Eldritch Elitist!” in what might be the highlight of my tenure at this blog. We then shuffled into a small, hot interview room; what follows are Matt and Cal’s own words, lightly edited for the sake of clarity and flow. I began by asking Matt and Callum how they came to headline an overseas festival with nothing but a debut LP under their belt.

Callum: “I spoke with Ty a bit about this. They like to bring in the bands that haven’t really “made it,” so I think that’s part of it. We’ve known Ty for quite a while, and he’s probably one of the most supportive guys in power metal today.”

Matt: “From what I’ve heard, a couple of years ago, shortly after our Fellowship EP first came out, people were already trying to get Fellowship over here. They saw Ty as “the method” for getting Fellowship over here within a couple of years, as opposed to having to wait five or six years for us to get big enough to be viable. They just kept poking Ty, and Ty, being the wonderful human that he is, said ‘you know what? Let’s try it.’ He emailed us and asked ‘are you guys up for it?’ And hell yeah, we were up for it!”

Callum: “I always had this fear that it wouldn’t actually happen, but here we are.”

Ty himself had actually covered Fellowship’s “Glint” on Lords of the Trident’s YouTube channel, long before they had signed to Scarlet Records or recorded their first LP. Matt has a small cameo in that video, so I’m curious whether that video happened before talks began for Fellowship to join the Mad With Power roster.

Matt: “Yeah, that was way before. After ‘Glint’ came out, Ty messaged us, initially saying how much he loved the song, and if we would mind if he did a cover of it. I sent him some files and he did the cover, which blew us away. I think that was the first…”

Callum: “It’s just crazy good, isn’t it?”

Matt: “Yeah, so good, and it was the first sort of ‘proper’ vocal cover of any of our stuff – which is difficult stuff. So there were immediately ‘buds for life’ kind of vibes. And then he started talking about the New Wave of Nice Metal Buds, which is so our vibe: positivity, support, all that jazz. And after that, I did a little opera video with him, for fun, and I got to show my cat to the internet. Around a year later, he emailed us saying ‘it’s time.’”

The New Wave of Nice Metal Buds that Matt refers to is Ty’s code of conduct, by which the festival is operated. It was created to promote kindness, inclusivity, and mindfulness within the Mad With Power community, and applies to the bands and fans therein. While it’s difficult to say whether this code of conduct is responsible for the festival’s atmosphere, it should be noted that the Mad With Power experience is indeed one of utmost positivity. In other words: The vibes are on point.

Since Fellowship’s inception, I’ve found it remarkable how well they balance their atmosphere of utmost sincerity against the cheese and excess of power metal, especially when similar bands – most notably Twilight Force – conduct themselves as if they are “in” on a shared joke with their audience. Cal and Matt had clearly considered this contradiction, as it stems from their unique songwriter-lyricist partnership.

Callum: “So… When I say Twilight Force is a huge inspiration for me, they’re not the only ones. In power metal, yeah, of course, they’re an inspiration for me. But I take a lot of inspiration from other bands. I don’t know if you’d pick up on the influence from our songs, but there are elements from bands like early Avenged Sevenfold, and a lot of older pop stuff, like Elton John and ABBA. I try to get across that it’s never meant to be ‘jokey,’ but at the same time, I wanted to make people feel happy, the way that kind of music makes me feel. All I can do is put out the best stuff I possibly can, that makes me feel good, and hopefully, it comes across that way to everyone else.”

Matt: “I think lyrically, this is one of those unique musical combos that I don’t think either me or Cal really expected, or would have sought out naturally. Cal’s music is not the type of thing that I would ever write, and I don’t think my lyrics are really the type of thing that Cal would immediately go for. But once we ended up putting them together, it became this symbiotic marriage. We never thought it would go crazy the way that it has, we never dreamed of coming to the States or anything when we first collaborated. I think the first thing we ever did together was record ‘Glint.’ That was almost like my trial for the band, in a way. And after the day of doing it, we just sort of sat around a pub. None of us had a drink, we just sat around a pub.”

Callum: “I think that was in London.”

Matt: “Yeah, that was in London! And we were just like… ‘Yeah, we made something really cool, didn’t we?’ When I first came into power metal – because I wasn’t into power metal, I am now, but I wasn’t at all when I joined the band – the music that everyone was making, and that Cal had sent me, was just so fundamentally uplifting. I didn’t want to take anything away from that. Cal has such a unique ability to convey really complicated emotions. There are a lot of really happy bits, and really sort of tense bits in Cal’s music, but because it flows so freely between them, it feels like just giving it one emotion would cheapen it somehow. So that desire to take it seriously, I think, is where we really align.”

I am intrigued by Matt’s mention that the recording of “Glint” was his first act as a member of Fellowship, and wonder aloud whether that recording was the version that made it onto their EP, and eventually their debut LP.

Matt: “Yep.”

Callum: “Mmm…”

Matt: “No?”

There is a bit of back and forth between Matt and Cal at this point about whether the adjustments made after the initial recording constitute a “different version” of the song, but their ultimate consensus is that what we hear on the record is what was recorded on day one. What’s even more interesting is that the rest of the band had never met Matt before that day. The official recording we have of “Glint,” as I see it, is the true beginning of Fellowship as we know them today.

Looking from the past to the future, I steer the subject to the newly announced album, The Skies Above Eternity. Specifically, I was curious about the press release’s mention of direct inspirations from the Japanese power metal scene, and how those ideas were incorporated while staying true to the Fellowship sound.

Callum: “So obviously, being such a huge power metal fan, I stumbled deeply into the Japanese realm, and I grew to love a lot of what they do harmonically. In my opinion, they do things quite differently from European and American power metal. They do a lot more intricate things, and they also delve further into neoclassical elements. I wanted to take a lot of influence from that and try to apply it to our sound without it being forced, if you know what I mean. And it wasn’t only power metal. I was listening to Japanese pop, and weirdly enough, they also do the same sort of harmonic things that are done in Japanese power metal; bands like YOASOBI, and other J-Pop artists. I tried to apply that harmonic style to our sound. We do it especially in ‘Hold Up Your Hearts (Again),’ and in ‘The Bitter Winds.’ That’s a real Galneryus-style song.”

At this point, I can’t help but remark that Galneryus is my favorite band, and – having heard “The Bitter Winds” live the day prior – that there are moments that remind me of Galneryus tracks like “Angel of Salvation.”

Matt: “Every time we’re in the car together, Cal tries to get me more and more into Galneryus. And every time we leave the car, I do add a Galneryus song to my Spotify playlist. I haven’t gone hardcore yet, but at the rate we’re going, I’ll get there. ‘Angel of Salvation’ was the first one Cal showed me where he was like ‘THIS.’

Matt makes an enthusiastic hand gesture to express Cal’s intensity towards Galneryus, implying a level of excitement with which I am all too familiar.

Branching off from our discussion of Japanese music, I ask Matt and Cal if there are any ideas on the upcoming album that feel risky, or that fans might not be expecting.

Callum: “Yes.”

Matt: “Yeah, definitely. I think after album one, we really wanted to make sure that… personally, I really don’t want Fellowship to be one of those bands that finds success with a sound and then never moves on. But I really want to make sure that we always have that fundamental joy that pervades the sort of “core” of what we do in everything. And I want – just personally, lyrically – I would love for each album to have just a slightly different ‘flavor’ of how we convey that joy, like ‘what’s an element of that joy we’re really tackling?’ The first album was very much about self-affirmation and self-discovery, finding oneself. This album is a lot darker. We have a song called ‘Victim,’ which, I think a year ago, no one would ever have predicted as a song title coming out of our band.”

EE: “It stood out to me when I was looking at the tracklist.”

Matt: “Yeah. This is ‘Light through the darkness,’ essentially. If I were to say there’s an overarching theme to this album, it would be that you can find joy in every situation, no matter how bleak it is. And finding that joy is worthwhile in and of itself, no matter how hard it seems, or how hard it is. Life is worth living, shortly. And ‘Victim’ is one of the songs where it most paints a picture that is very bleak, but finds a sort of ray of light in the middle of it.

After Matt remarks on finding different “flavors” (or “flavours,” as he puts it) of joy, I ask about the contrast of the bright, orange cover from The Saberlight Chronicles, and whether the darker, purple cover of The Skies Above Eternity was an intentional choice to help fit its more dour lyrical tone.

Callum: “There are a couple of things I wanted on this cover. I wanted… I wanted a…”

Cal pauses in search of the right words.

Matt: “Can you tell these were long conversations?”

Callum: “I wanted a cool looking castle, in the background -”

Matt: “He’s obsessed with the castle!”

Callum: “In the background! I also wanted purple – it suits the sound. I don’t really know why, I just feel like it suits the sound.”

Matt: “He’s not actually synesthetic, but Cal has so much color association. He’ll make a song and I’ll have a first pass, lyrically. Often, we end up in a conversation – I think it happened two or three times on this album – where something was close to the vibe, but it didn’t quite match what was in Cal’s head. And pretty much every time, he says “this song is blue,” or “this song is purple,” and that actually really helps me in terms of finding that vibe. The album art was very much a reflection of that. We actually had two passes of the album art this time, so if you buy the vinyl, you’ll see an early attempt at sort of finding the right vibe on the inner sleeve.”

Callum: “I just absolutely love this album art. To me, everything matches.”

Matt: “Yeah, absolutely. I think it’s amazing, Péter Sallai’s work.”

Callum: “Going back to the question, though, you obviously had ideas for the album art as well.”

Matt: “Yeah. There is a story behind every Fellowship album, and I’m hoping that I will find the time that there always will be. I obviously want the songs to stand on their own. But if we can have little bits of the lyrics which find their way into the creation of the front cover, and we combine that with the vibe that Cal can create with the music – which is very purple on this album! – we get that. You’ve got this really cool magic star thing being shattered by a warrior. It’s very evocative of a ‘battling against something difficult in a wasteland’ kind of emotion. We’re really excited, it’s really cool.”

I agree with Matt and Cal that the art is fantastic – to the point where I had bought a shirt featuring the album’s artwork the day before, without having heard a single note of it. As Matt touched on the story for the new album’s concept, I ask if there would be any extra media materials accompanying the record, such as the novella Matt wrote to accompany The Saberlight Chronicles.

Matt: ”There will be a novella for every album that we do. I am committed to saying that. I really mostly say that just to make me do it. But yeah, there is a novella coming for this album. It’s going to be very, very different from the first one. The band hasn’t read it yet, because it’s not finished yet, but… it will be! As soon as I can, I’m finishing it. It’s pretty much done.

“Everything in Fellowship… firstly, it is worth saying that all of the story stuff is very consciously in the background. The origin of the novella is as a writing tool, to keep album one lyrically fresh, and it just sprawled into a novella. I love that idea, so now we’re doing it every time. Everything exists in the same universe, where the characters of Fellowship are represented in the prologue and epilogue of every book as storytellers. Each album is then a story that we tell, which will have unique characters, and will have unique ideas. And the bookends are the tale of the Fellowship itself, which is a set of immortal storytellers, cursed to tell every story from history, that they experience whenever they are asked.”

I had planned at this point to ask Brad Wosko, the band’s lead guitarist, about the challenges that come with adapting the guitar parts of former lead guitarist Sam Browne (who is still a studio member, but no longer performs live) to his own playstyle. It says a lot about how in sync the members of Fellowship are that Matt is able to provide a detailed answer on Brad’s behalf.

Matt: “Firstly, huge props to Brad, he’s worked so hard over the last couple of years.”

EE: “I could tell.”

I’m referring here to Brad’s performance at Mad With Power, where he played most of the solos with incredible accuracy, in relation to how Sam Browne recorded them on The Saberlight Chronicles.

Matt: ”Nowadays, Brad is our lead guitarist, for sure. In the studio, Sam plays the lead on his songs, and Brad plays the lead on all of Cal’s songs. That’s the division. A lot of the shapes that Sam chose to play for album one, because they suit his fingers, don’t suit the way Brad plays, so he’s had to move things around a lot. And some things are really awkward for him, whereas they were okay for Sam. And some things that were awkward for Sam are really fine for Brad. One of the things he’s talked about specifically was the solo for “Saint Beyond the River,” which was the song that I wrote. I’m not a guitarist, and the solo that I got Sam to play was, note for note, what I wrote. And when Sam did it, he said “You’ve not written a possible part, this is the closest I can get.” And that’s because the shapes just weren’t what Sam is used to, it’s not how Sam plays. But weirdly enough, it is exactly how Brad plays. That was one of the solos that he took like a duck to water. So stylistically they’re very different, and Brad has had to adapt to a lot of those shapes on the guitar.”

To follow up, I ask whether Brad’s taking of the lead guitarist role had any impact on the writing of the new record, as it sounds like that might be the case.

Callum: “Actually, it hasn’t. We knew long ago that Sam wasn’t playing with us live, before we’d begun writing album two. I wrote the solos for my songs for most of album one, and that’s kind of applied to album two. I haven’t really changed anything.”

Matt: “There are little bits and ideas that Brad has contributed.”

Callum: “Yeah, he has. There’s a few little bits he’s added, but the majority, 90%, is the same sort of thing I was doing before. I just gotta write what sounds good to me.”

I had also intended to ask the band’s new bassist, Ed Munson, about the role he played in shaping The Skies Above Eternity. From my perspective, Ed’s energetic stage presence bolsters the Fellowship ethos of joy and camaraderie, so I go ahead with asking Matt and Callum about the ways in which he had impacted the band’s compositional and studio practices.

Matt: “I don’t think we can actually answer this question.”

EE: “Okay.”

Callum: “I can say something. It’s a similar thing to Brad’s solos; he’d get the songs, and he has added his own parts. There are things that I, not being a bass player, would not know. So he would add slides and these little intricacies across the songs, which I wouldn’t even think to do.”

Matt: “They give the songs life, y’know. More life.”

Callum: “Yeah, for sure. I think he has, especially with the songs I’ve written, one hundred percent improved them with small, little bits. Any small improvement is a good thing.”

Matt: “There’s also just the fact that Ed is a joyous human to be around. He’s such a friendly guy. Most of the time, it’s just sort of me and Cal in the studio, we do a lot of that stuff together, as a symbiotic pair. But he’s just so happy and fun that it makes being in a band easy a lot of the time. I think that does probably have some effect on the music. Where I can’t tell you.”

At this point, I ask Matt and Cal if they can speak for a moment on their experience working with the late Phillipe Giordana of the French power metal band Fairyland, a band I’ve been listening to for as long as I’ve been a fan of the genre. Giordana passed away in 2022, after having contributed keyboards to “The Frozen Land,” the Japanese bonus track from The Saberlight Chronicles.

Callum: “He… yeah, he was such a friendly guy. We were a new band in the scene, and he stumbled upon us from ‘Glint’, from our EP. And he would just be messaging us all the time, even at 2 AM, just to have a conversation about anything.”

Matt: “He was the first person who was in power metal proper to really believe in us, other than Lynd¹, who you sort of knew beforehand.”

Callum: “Yeah.”

Matt: “And that enthusiasm is so infectious. And he was so kind and lovely, and one of the first things he ever said to us was ‘If you ever need a keyboard player, I would be beyond honored to do something.’ We’d written the entire album at this point, and then we realized we needed a Japanese bonus track. We didn’t know this beforehand. We wrote the Japanese bonus track, and we said ‘we gotta have Phil on it.’

Callum: “He just wanted to collaborate so badly, and we said “this is the perfect song,” with the dueling solos between him and Sam.

Matt: “We gave him the song, and he got so excited. I get really emotional talking about that, because… Yeah, he was just, I’ve never seen… We didn’t speak to him in person or anything, but he was so excited, like a child in a candy shop kind of excitement. And he blew it out of the park, and he kept talking about it afterwards, the year on.”

Matt and Cal’s memories of Phil are genuinely touching, but I steer our chat back to lighter topics, as the last thing I want is to cast a rain cloud over the day of two musicians who I massively respect. I ask them whether there are any guest collaborators on the new record.

Matt: “No, I don’t think so.”

Callum: “No, there actually isn’t.”

EE: “Okay.”

Callum: “It wasn’t a thing where we said ‘we don’t want any guests.’ I guess we…”

Matt: “I think this album kind of – stop me if I’m going off-patch – but for me I felt like this album needed to be a statement from us, in a way, where album one did really well and came out of nowhere. I think we very much wanted to prove something with album two.”

EE: “That it’s not a fluke?”

Matt: “It’s not a fluke, absolutely. And I think that just made us dive into ourselves, as it were.”

Callum: “You mean, don’t rely on someone else to prop ourselves up.”

Matt: “Yeah, exactly.”

On that note, I ask Matt and Cal whether they had a wishlist of musicians they would like to collaborate with, encouraging them to dream big.

Callum: “I would love for Lynd to do a solo on a song, from… well, ex-Twilight Force. Syu from Galneryus would be awesome. We were in contact with Herman Li² for a little bit, a few years back. We haven’t heard from him in a while, but that would be awesome.”

EE: “He left a comment on your original music video, I remember that.”

Matt: “Yeah! He watched it on stream, we were honored. It was so cool.”

Callum: “I’ve said three, Matt.”

Matt: “Yeah, I think from my perspective, there’s a load of vocalists who I would love to work with, who would add something – maybe like a character or something on a future album, who I think would just mesh really well with my voice. I would probably go a little bit outside of power metal to find some of those voices. So, I’m not sure it’s ever happening, but someone like Maisie Peters, who’s a… real shot in the dark, off the wall. I just really like her voice. Moron Police are my favorite band of all time, so I’d love to work with their vocalist, who’s also an incredible guitar player, by the way. And then within power metal, I’m super good friends with Sozos Michael, so I think that’s the one. If anything’s going to happen, it would be with him. I’m doing stuff with him on Eons Enthroned, and I would just love to have him on a record sometime.”

EE: “Gotcha. Is there…”

Matt: “And Cal has no idea who the first two people are.”

Callum: “No, not a clue!”

Continuing the topic of dream collaborations, I ask Matt and Cal whether there are any artists who they would love to tour with someday.

Matt: “It’s really typical to say DragonForce… It’s not because they’re huge, but because we’ve spoken to Herman. He seems super chill, and he’s been really supportive of us, and it would just be nice to actually support him – like, literally support him in return, and do what we can. That would be really cool.”

Callum: “A band that’s recently started touring the world – which is awesome, I love it, because it doesn’t usually happen with Japanese bands – Lovebites. That would be awesome to do, because I’m quite a big fan of them. They’re a bit more on the thrash-y side with some of their stuff, but you don’t really see Japanese bands coming out to tour the world. But they’re doing well, and that would be great.”

Matt: “That would be such a fun concert, I think.”

To get a bit more granular with a subject they had briefly touched on already, I ask Matt and Cal how they balanced challenging themselves creatively with The Skies Above Eternity, while still delivering more of what people love about Fellowship’s first album.

Callum: “I always challenge myself by, for example, when I was talking about the Japanese style of music – not necessarily even power metal, as I said, with bands like YOASOBI – trying to incorporate that sort of sound into power metal, where it hasn’t necessarily been done. Some Japanese power metal bands, like Galneryus, obviously, already do that. But outside of Japan, you don’t really hear that sort of thing. Once again, with ‘Hold Up Your Hearts (Again),’ there’s a lot of harmonic aspects in that which were a bit experimental, but I think it’s worked out.”

Matt: “The pre-chorus harmonies that you wrote, they’re really cool and different.”

Callum: “I mean, the whole thing, there’s a lot of experimental stuff in there.”

Matt: “I just have a really long list of cool words I want to use on my phone.”

The three of us burst into laughter at this – Matt being the first to laugh, in self-deprecating fashion.

Matt: “I think I’ve said this a bunch of times in different interviews, but for me, the thing that is most important when I approach a song, is marrying the narrative and lyrical content to the music. It’s very much about how the music is the core of everything, and everything I do is a reaction to that, so that it meshes, it flows, it works together. And this means that the first thing I do, before I’ve started any words for a song, is think about how that song thematically evolves, just purely musically. And I think that sort of keeps things fresh. Because as long as the music is evolving, then I will evolve with that music. And I think Cal, in that sense, pushes me a lot…”

Callum: “Yeah.”

Matt: “… to come up with new things and interesting ideas.”

Callum: “I’m always coming across new artists that I like, and as I said, it’s just trying to take some ideas from what they might use, which you don’t typically hear in power metal, and trying to fit it into power metal.”

EE: “Yeah, inspiration can come from anywhere. I mean, what is power metal if not just metal with more pop in it?”

Matt and Callum: “Yeah!”

EE: “I almost didn’t ask this question… but I’m going to, just for fun.”

Callum: “Go.”

During the previous night’s show, while Fellowship were three songs deep into their set, Matt made an unfortunate flub when he addressed the crowd as “Michigan,” rather than “Madison.” He immediately caught and corrected his error, and proffered an apology to the audience after the song had ended, claiming that he had failed out of geography in school. I decided to offer Matt an opportunity to redeem himself while having a little fun in the process.

EE: “Matt, did you really fail out of geography?”

Matt: “Uh, I… I didn’t actually get an F, but I got such low grades consistently that my teacher disliked me, to the point where she actually said in a class that she would not accept me taking geography at a GCSE³ level. That is not something that teachers are supposed to or allowed to do! I really annoyed my geography teacher, because I just… it was not my bag. Was not my bag. So no, I did, genuinely. I grew up thinking that Dover was North of where I live, and Dover is literally the lowest part of England, so…”

Callum: “Is this why you’ve learned so much about American states now? We were coming here, so you just learned…”

Matt: “Yeah, yeah, it is. I don’t know which one I’m in, but I know enough about them.”

Callum: “Okay, Mister Michigan.”

Matt lets out an exaggerated wail of social anguish at Cal’s jab.

EE: “I was talking with Angry Metal Guy after your set – who I think you met yesterday – and he said ‘I feel so bad for Matt, because Matt’s probably going to be thinking about that once a week forever.’”

Matt: “Yeah, yeah. There is literally a Simpsons joke about somebody doing that, and… grr. I can’t get over that one.”

EE: “From the perspective of an audience member, and all the people who were around me, everyone just thought it was super funny and a very honest mistake, and no one thought anything of it.”

Matt: “I’m really, I’m really… really glad. If I made that mistake in England, I would probably be booed off stage.”

With a band-aid slapped on Matt’s wounded pride, I proceed to wrap up our chat in an unpredictable, innovative fashion: By asking about Fellowship’s plans for the foreseeable future.

Matt: “So, we have a couple shows booked later this year. We’re doing another sort of mini-tour in the U.K., and we’re headlining this time, which should be super fun. We’re playing Edinborough… and two other places which I could look up, but are not in my brain right now. I want to say Manchester and London.”

Callum: “Yeah, that’s correct.”

Matt: “Yeah, it is Manchester and London.”

Callum: “We’ve got two German festivals.”

Matt: “Just after Christmas?”

Callum: “Yeah.”

Matt: “And then we’re playing Epic Fest next year, which we have been re-booked for. Which is such a cool thing for us, because we played there this year, and we were on such a small stage that a lot of people were disappointed they couldn’t see us. So they’ve booked us again for next year on a bigger one! Which is really, really cool, and just validating for us, I think.”

Callum: “We also have… I’ve started, I’ve got ideas already for album three.”

Matt: “Oh, don’t promise that so soon, Cal!”

Callum: “There’s ideas in the bank, there’s some ideas already. They’re not finished, but the base stuff is there.”

Matt: “We’re gonna start getting the “When’s album three” cries before we’ve even dropped album two!”

With that, I thanked Matt and Callum for their time before being given the friendliest handshakes I’ve ever received. If you’d like to hear an utterly wholesome and genuine power metal record that combines elements of Galneryus, YOASOBI, and ABBA, you can catch The Skies Above Eternity, releasing on Scarlet Records on Friday, November 22nd. Fellowship’s third album will follow shortly thereafter. Cal promised.

The post Interview with Fellowship’s Matthew Corry and Callum Tuffen appeared first on Angry Metal Guy.

As it turns out, the most efficient way for Fellowship to absolve any fears that their sophomore record might fail to capitalize on the strengths of its predecessor is to open with the best power metal song of the year. The winkingly titled “Hold up Your Hearts (Again)” is the ideal power metal opener, excising all chaff and cutting straight to the most giddily melodic lead guitar riff imaginable. The flow and feel of this track are replicated in many of The Skies above Eternity’s best cuts (namely “Dawnbreaker,” “Eternity,” and “World End Slowly”). It took me a while to pinpoint where exactly I’d heard this vibe, but once I realized, it could not be denied: these tracks all invoke the hype-building structure of an excellent anime opening. It may sound silly, and perhaps even cringe if you are a joyless husk given human form. However, if you’re familiar with anime tropes, and you close your eyes during the opening of these songs, you can practically see the logo drop. This feels like a conscious choice to differentiate the feel of a Fellowship song from their contemporaries. Thanks to the band’s ever-boundless optimism, they pull it off without losing so much of a hint of their established charm.

Efficiency is the operative word when it comes to The Skies above Eternity’s pop-oriented structure; excluding the instrumental outro “Memories on the Wind,” the album barely breaches forty minutes. While I don’t think this is a better record than The Saberlight Chronicles, it is nearly as good, with The Skies Above Eternity’s main strength over its predecessor being its digestibility and replayability. Where Saberlight was something of a marathon at sixty-two minutes, Skies is compulsively replayable, and its songs are every bit as excellent (though it did take some time for the training montage-worthy “King of Nothing” to fully grow on me). My only criticism, then, is an unconventional but glaring one: it feels like it’s missing a track. The infectiously bouncy “A New Hope” is a bit of an odd closer, but one that would make much more sense if it were preceded by a darker, more bombastic track in the vein of “Avalon.” As it stands, The Skies above Eternity feels somewhat anticlimactic.

Speaking of “darker,” the announcement for The Skies above Eternity advertised a darker direction for Fellowship. This darkness manifests in a purely lyrical fashion; these songs cover notably more difficult subject matter, with “World End Slowly” in particular addressing the search for solace in the face of an imminent and untimely death. Yet Matthew Corry’s lyrics still manage to kindle hope in a wonderfully poetic fashion, preserving Fellowship’s essential, unshakeable optimism. Corry’s literal voice has evolved as well, with his intense delivery in “Eternity” being my favorite performance from him to date. The band flexes more technical muscle than ever despite multiple lineup alterations; The Skies above Eternity is a riffier experience, with more colorful texturing in both its composition and drummer Callum Tuffen’s kitwork. While former lead guitarist Sam Browne retains a studio presence, Brad Wosko has taken up the bulk of the lead work and proves himself to be every bit as proficient. It should be said as well that incoming bassist Ed Munson delivers one of my favorite bass performances of the year in the verse of “Victim.”

The Skies above Eternity is not an experience on the same level as The Saberlight Chronicles, and—at least from my perspective—it was never going to be. That being said, thanks to its condensed runtime and a stronger sense of instrumental muscle, I find it likely that a sizable chunk of Fellowship’s audience will see it as the superior album. Regardless of where one stands with their abbreviated ranking of Fellowship records, I cannot imagine any previously established fan of Fellowship being disappointed with The Skies Above Eternity. It may not have the same impact on the scene as Fellowship’s debut, but it is vital to their discography. This record doesn’t just confirm that Fellowship’s initial success was anything but a fluke; it assures me that they both understand and have preserved what made them so special in the first place.

Rating: 4.0/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 256 kb/s CBR MP3
Label: Scarlet Records
Websites: fellowshipmetal.bandcamp.com | fellowshipmetal.com | facebook.com/fellowshipUK
Releases Worldwide: November 22nd, 2024

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At its core, Legendarium’s heart is rooted in trad / trve metal, their straightforward rhythms and legato guitar lines rooted in grounded grandiosity. You wouldn’t know it from the introductory riff of opener “A Thousand Swords” though, which claims a tremolo-happy middle ground between Ensiferum and Dissection. This track makes immediate sense of the “powerdeath” tag, one which I find sells the Legendarium experience short. For Eternal Glory is showered with shimmering keys yanked from the 90’s symphonic black metal playbook, and while the occasional blackened vibe rears its head (“Nightfall in the Deep Woods”), the keys more frequently compliment tracks that remind of Manilla Road (“Crypt Crusher”) or Viking-era Bathory (“Tomorrow We Die”). I could namedrop bands all day, but what ultimately matters is Legendarium’s miraculous cohesion. No aspect of For Eternal Glory sounds forced or out of place; everything gels, a unified vision that delights in exploring the connecting threads of countless styles of metal.

A record like For Eternal Glory only works if it manages to be more than the sum of its parts. While that certainly holds true, it inevitably feels something like a jack of all trades, master of none. The experience as a whole is engrossing and addictively catchy, but its steadfast baseline of quality means that there are no surprising standouts. The closest this record comes to throwing a wild curveball comes from the Unto Others-esque goth-pop-metal jam “My Life in Your Hands;” refreshing, but not exactly thrilling. While For Eternal Glory is far and away the superior Legendarium album to Death’s Hand in Yours, I miss the latter record’s big rhythmic and stylistic swings, resulting in odd, delightful surprises, even if they didn’t always work. It’s difficult to justify complaining about the lack of strong highlights, however, on a record with no identifiable weak links. On For Eternal Glory, consistency is king. It’s just missing a certain je ne sais quoi that would elevate it to the same tier as Legendarium’s most prestigious peers.

While my compositional nitpicks are nothing that should turn off prospective Legendarium fans, For Eternal Glory’s vocals may prove divisive. Kerbov’s harsh vocals manifest as shouty death growls, and while I love their distinctly unhinged timbre, his clean singing requires some acclimation. Kerbov’s confidence and control over his clean vocals have improved exponentially with each subsequent Legendarium release, but while his singing is a great fit for the slower, mournful “Tomorrow We Die,” his delivery on the record’s more intense cuts lack the power to be fully compelling. That being said, I find his performances on the whole to be more charming than detrimental, and really, this show is all about his string work. For Eternal Glory is one of those records where there is almost always something interesting happening with the guitars. Massive, effortlessly catchy lead riffs soar above just about every measure of this record, resulting in every single song being stuck in my head at some point during my review process.

For all of Legendarium’s genre-splicing inspirations, For Eternal Glory sometimes feels like an elevated jam session between Kerbov and Vaccari, and I absolutely mean that as a compliment. This record’s rhythmic simplicity forms the ideal platform for Legendarium’s exploratory nature to blossom. While I’d like to hear them further push the boundaries of their aesthetic, I’m also deeply impressed at how they have boiled down so many genres and influences into a formula that can only be described as the Legendarium sound. This is the first Legendarium record that I can easily recommend to basically any appreciator of traditional and melodic metal, and one which I anticipate being the ideal foundation upon which to further refine and propel their sound. And just in case the spectacular album cover did not make it immediately clear: Yes, you should buy this.

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: WAV
Label: Fiadh Productions
Websites: legendarium.bandcamp.com | ampwall.com/a/legendarium | facebook.com/people/Legendarium/61559083652568
Releases Worldwide: November 8th, 2024

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Burning in Celestial Poison still very much sounds like Black Curse: sonically akin to a more purely elemental Teitanblood, but with an unmistakably caustic stamp. It’s evident that the members understand that approximately 17% of the Black Curse entertainment factor stems from fucked up guitar squeals and indecipherable shrieking, as those crucial components are ever-present. Yet in contrast to the relative simplicity of Black Curse’s debut, Burning in Celestial Poison’s compositions invoke a puzzle box shrouded in thorns and smoke. Its average track length nearly doubles that of its predecessor, but even its shortest cuts feel unpredictable and disarmingly aggressive. For all its twists and turns, Burning in Celestial Poison is a more immediately visceral Black Curse, with less allowance for doom metal sections or breathing room in general. This is an outright endurance test and an utterly relentless experience, but its density and scope are captivating, ensuring maximum replay value.

In terms of genre composition, Burning in Celestial Poison has shifted the balance of black metal and death metal, giving their blackened side more earth with which to scorch. In fact, the winding compositions frequently remind me of Black Curse’s labelmate Funereal Presence. While Black Curse operates best when they prime their assaults with death metal bluntness, this change represents a better balancing of their elements, and death metal is still frequently granted center stage. “Trodden Flesh” in particular boasts a midsection anchored with disgustingly catchy riffs that feel disconcertingly accessible in the context of this record, uncharacteristically enticing as if concealing an ulterior motive. If I have a critique from the songwriting front, it’s that memorable passages such as these feel somewhat sparse. There are big moments that tower above the madness, feverishly grasping at an even bolder vision, but their hold is fleeting. A greater frequency of these moments could have further elevated an already compelling vision.

Arthur Rizk returns once again as producer, and has engineered Burning in Celestial Poison to be similarly abrasive, with instruments presented in lower fidelity than its predecessor. The performances are further obscured by countless layers of screeching ambience, with every component thoroughly moistened by reverb. I’m of two minds regarding the production on this record. On one hand, its sheer cacophony makes for a listening experience that feels only a few steps removed from inscrutability, making its curious atmosphere all the more maliciously unknowable. On the other, my desire to constantly delve into this record’s depths for a better understanding of its thesis is mildly quelled by the hostility of its engineering. As this uncomfortable feeling is almost certainly Black Curse’s intent, I’m inclined to chalk the production choices up as a net positive. Burning in Celestial Poison is the rare metal record that may come across as legitimately hostile to genre veterans, and one that somehow lives up to the overwrought, hyperbolic pitch presented with its promo sheet.

After living with this album for some time, I came to the realization that Burning in Celestial Poison feels closer to the Black Curse imprinted in my mind following their debut than the Black Curse presented on that debut. It is unquestionably more than the sum of its parts and feels closer to the band’s true vision, one driven by instinct and impulse rather than a discernible, structured order. As for whether I believe this record is actually better than Endless Wound, I believe the answer will only be revealed over time. Endless Wound is more immediately appealing, but something about its execution feels less satisfying now that I know what Black Curse is capable of. Burning in Celestial Poison will almost certainly spark debate; with every spin, it becomes clearer that it is not a safe sequel. Yet this is still a work that sounds like it could only come from one collective of artists, and to me, that signifies a success on all fronts.

Rating: 4.0/5.0
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Sepulchral Voice Records
Website: blackcurse-svr.bandcamp.com
Releases Worldwide: October 25th, 2024

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War Hearts’ brisk pacing might be its greatest asset, resulting in the most addictively replayable Frozen Crown release since The Fallen King. Its tracks race by in DragonForce-esque swirls of melody and adrenaline, making it both the catchiest—and likely fastest—record in the band’s rapidly expanding discography. “War Hearts,” “Edge of Reality,” and (my personal favorite) “On Silver Wings” in particular are defined by protracted guitar lines and explosive vocal moments that exude unbridled power metal instinct. Even outside these songs, War Hearts is distinguished by the most purely power metal entry in the Frozen Crown canon. Where Call of the North opted to exclude harsh vocals entirely, War Hearts sees the band further (yet not entirely) reigning in their melodeath leanings. This is a leaner Frozen Crown in multiple respects, yet one that impressively feels as distinct as its meaner predecessor.

As infectiously propulsive as War Hearts can be, it is a notably less ambitious Frozen Crown offering by design. Slashing the average track length has led to more traditional song structuring, meaning that the condensed epics and unexpected compositional twists from the preceding record are more or less absent. I expect some fans may take issue with this shift, but I do not see the simplified songwriting as a net negative. This is merely a different flavor of Frozen Crown, standing out from past efforts through bespoke strengths and weaknesses. That being said, certain tracks weather this streamlining worse than others. “Night of the Wolf” is too straightforwardly fast to the point where its hooks fail to properly take hold. Conversely, “I Am the Wind” feels obligatory as the sole mid-paced number; enjoyable, yet ultimately unremarkable. Though very good in its own right, extra jolts of flair or complexity during War Hearts’ sporadic periods of monotony may have elevated it to excellence.

Frozen Crown’s gambit on a simplified experience has also diminished the progressive leanings often imbued into their riffs. While I miss those brain-tickling curveballs, War Hearts makes it up by filling their absence with brow-moistening fire bursts of technicality. The guitar work here is unquestionably the most impressive of the band’s efforts, with leads and solos that regularly recall Fraser Edward’s (Ascension) technicolor noodling. Recruiting a new guitarist in Alessia Lanzone (joining Sheena Bellomo and founding member Federico Mondelli) has surely contributed towards broadening the definition of the Frozen Crown sound. The guitars, paired with Giada Etro’s powerful yet naturalistic vocal timbre, make for one of the most colorful shredscapes in the genre today. It’s a shame that the performances feel crowded in the mix, an issue carried over from War Hearts’ predecessor, but its lush symphonic leanings sound pleasantly distinct in the band’s catalog all the same.

I love what Frozen Crown has accomplished with War Hearts, which is firmly my second favorite of their records. Frozen Crown has never failed in iterating from one album to the next; where their first three records felt like a band figuring itself out, War Hearts (as Call of the North before it) exemplifies a confident group comfortably experimenting within their broadly defined boundaries. I am all but certain that we will eventually be treated to Frozen Crown records that feel more complex and aggressive than War Hearts, as well as records that successfully iterate on its more accessible, power metal-forward approach. I’m at a point with Frozen Crown where I never quite know what I’ll experience with each new album, aside from confidence that what I hear will likely be very, very good. Any band that enkindles such a feeling of assurance is to be protected at all costs.

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ | Format Reviewed: Haulix Stream (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻
Label: Napalm Records
Websites: frozencrown.bandcamp.com/music | frozencrown.net | facebook.com/frozencrownofficial
Releases Worldwide: October 18th, 2024

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I’ve often compared Undeath to Cannibal Corpse as neither band shies away from conjuring colorfully melodic counterbalances to their deathly centers of gravity. Yet More Insane isn’t just melodic; it feels downright anthemic. “Brandish the Blade” exemplifies this feeling with ascending tremolo lines swelling in power metal grandeur while retaining a pure death metal feel. That is, until the guitar solo in the track’s latter half explodes with harmonic flair ripped straight from the power metal playbook. Indeed, Undeath’s most cavernous qualities have been pared back in favor of a more contemporary experience, but More Insane almost exclusively utilizes this accessibility as an avenue to invention. If you loved “Human Chandelier” from Undeath’s sophomore showstopper It’s Time… To Rise from the Grave, you will adore the unconventionally twisty catchiness of tracks like “Disattachment of a Prophylactic in the Brain.”¹

Whether through innovation or masterclass exercises in basic death metal fundamentals (“Bounty Hunter”), More Insane feels brilliant for the bulk of its blisteringly quick runtime. Its only structural fumble is one of consistency. Certain tracks have the audacity to be merely “pretty good” in a tracklist full of heaters like “Dead from Beyond” or “Disputatious Malignancy.” Some of these cuts fail to resonate as strongly due to feeling relatively basic; “Wailing Cadavers,” while plenty fun in the moment, is just “that track between “Bounty Hunter” and “Disattachment of a Prophylactic in the Brain.”² Elsewhere, “Sutured for War” presents as a slab of competent and enjoyable The Black Dahlia Murder worship, and while it’s an appreciable oddity, it ultimately feels out of place. This is not to say that Undeath should shy away from incorporating melodeath elements. The aforementioned “Disputatious Malignancy” excels at doing exactly that in a framework more befitting of Undeath’s strengths.

Speaking of optimization, More Insane’s more insane songwriting demands elevated technicality, and the entire band delivers in a manner I would never have expected upon first hearing Lesions of a Different Kind. Drummer Matt Browning, and guitarists Kyle Beam and Jared Welch, tackle near-tech death levels of complexity on tracks like “Disputatious Malignancy” and “Disattachment of a Prophylatctic in the Brain,”³ seemingly without breaking a sweat, and bassist Tommy Wall’s anchoring lines convert certain tracks (“More Insane”) into the band’s best groove-fests to date. All the while, vocalist Alexander Jones delivers on such a level that I can’t help but wonder if the album title was based on his performances on this record. I’ve always enjoyed his no-frills growls in their cavernous, vaguely whispery glory, but Jones’ growls on More Insane are notably full-throated and primed for manic escalation at the drop of a hat. His ascending cries of “Writhing in my head!” during “Disputatious Malignancy” are just one of countless infectious and memorable examples where he significantly elevates Undeath’s personality.

For all its cartoonish gore and slime, some people tend to take death metal way too seriously. When I’ve reviewed Undeath in the past, something about the band has driven those people in the comments to turn their minds inside out,⁴ seemingly in a vain search to comprehend how anyone can think something so simple can be so great.⁵ Despite its disappointingly flat production – it’s not bad, just unexciting – More Insane is so charismatic as to have a solid shot at converting at least a portion of that crowd. It doesn’t reach its full potential for its entire runtime, but when firing on all cylinders, More Insane excels at grabbing the elements that make Undeath great and pulling them in unexpected and thrilling directions. While not the crown jewel of the Undeath catalog, More Insane handily cements the Undeath discography as one of the best in the scene today, and I get the impression that they are only just getting started.

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Prosthetic Records
Websites: undeath.bandcamp.com | undeathmetal.com | facebook.com/undeathNY
Releases Worldwide: October 4th, 2024

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