Tenside
Come Alive Dying
One thing to note about Tenside—if there’s a type of metalcore that’s popular, chances are they’re playing it. Go back to the beginning in 2007 on My Personal War, and you’ll find a Euro-accented Atreyu and Bullet For My Valentine, substandard production and all. Fast forward to all the way to 2020’s Glamour & Gloom, and they’re nipping at the heels of Bury Tomorrow. All the while, the genuine article still has the edge, by virtue of being…y’know, genuine. Still, some might proclaim it as an ingenuitive and adaptive angle; others, an explicitly, nakedly opportunistic one. If Come Alive Dying says anything, in its hopping on the train of ready-for-radio metalcore banality, the right option is probably the latter.
Positives first, though—it’s not as hideously gentrified as some of what it’s pilfering; you can still tell this is supposed to be a metal album in some capacity. In fact, there are instances where the production is rather good, like Shadow To Shine that’s got the lead-dense guitars and drums that can carry material like this fairly far. It’s not to last, of course (and by the closer Dust Of The Bereaved, any significant heaviness has fully degraded), but the semblance of effort matters. And yet, there’s the niggling feeling that Tenside believe they’re emulating Bring Me The Horizon with this super-contemporary nu-metal vector, only for the results to be sadly rather entry-level. If anything, it’s closer to modern Of Mice & Men, where an admirable commitment to weight is handicapped at most turns by a lack of vibrancy or big swings.
Also like Of Mice & Men’s recent work, Come Alive Dying is inescapably mid. Obviously it’s designed to be more, but the kneecapping limitations that modern metalcore is addicted to isn’t magically sidestepping them. Tenside’s status as perennial, second-string pretenders makes that obvious from the jump, as does their oft-frustrating reluctance to engage deeper with the music they’re co-opting. It’s basically a wholesale lift, meaning that reused dreariness and an aggressively plodding pace act as knowing features. And that begs of question of what you’re actually supposed to do with this. Highlights within the boundaries of this sound are too infrequent to justify 12 tracks that feel even longer than they are, and it’s not like Tenside have their own ideas to fold in and enhance this with.
Even with the very-true argument in place of metalcore—especially in modern iterations—being fairly derivative, there’s something about Tenside’s own fickleness even within that that sets them down lower. They’re currently eight albums deep with precious little to show for it, because they’ve not cultivated anything they can call their own. Come Alive Dying might be a particularly egregious example, having discarded what was at least solid for them in that Killswitch / Bury Tomorrow mould, to chase something that just isn’t worth it. It’s likely why there’s so little to speak of in a not-insignificant catalogue, and why, after all this time, Tenside are the epitome of the bottleneck’s casualties.
For fans of: Bring Me The Horizon, Of Mice & Men, Bad Omens
‘Come Alive Dying’ by Tenside is released on 19th January on Ivorytower Records.
Lord Dying
Clandestine Transcendence
It’s been generally ignored thanks to how bands like this seldom become wide-reaching darlings, but the evolution of Lord Dying is a fairly note-perfect representation of how it should be done. A couple of albums of sludge would show what they’re fundamentally capable of, but 2019’s Mysterium Tremendum was the real yardstick for how far their standing-start leap could be. It was way more progressive and vivid in its theming and performance, as a band with aspirations this close to Mastodon should be. Older Mastodon especially, which makes Lord Dying’s strong-willed attitude to continue surging forth on Clandestine Transcendence all the more encouraging.
They’re currently galaxies away from some relatively humble beginnings, and all the better for it. In leaning into that prog-metal expanse, there’s just a higher grade of quality present that’s rather self-evident. Obviously an eight-minute mouth of the abyss like Dancing On The Emptiness is going to draw that sort of attention, with its numerous dynamic shifts with not one ever seeming to drag, but that’s also true of Clandestine Transcendence as a whole. Mastodon worship, it might be, but Lord Dying are never wrong in their approximation of it. Thus, there are moments like the the hyperactive tremors that kick off Soul Metamorphosis before crumbling into ominous, atmospheric waves of sludge and doom, or Swimming In The Absence in possession of the album’s most strident vocal melodies. Just all great stuff that’s worked exactly as it should be.
Further to that, there’s the weight that hewn experience brings, immeasurably colouring Lord Dying’s efforts for the better. Erik Olson now has enough vocal range and technique to effectively play the whole Mastodon suite by himself (it’s what makes Unto Becoming, for as dead-on a resemblance as it bears, a real highlight here). Meanwhile, Alyssa Maucere’s bass is an unsung highlight that always seems to rumble away with perfect presence, similar to Kevin Swartz’s drumming with the ebbing and flowing complexities that all great prog really needs. This is a unit who’ve clearly developed in and around each other in their complementary features, to say nothing of Kurt Ballou’s production, the win button for these more darkly, adventurously heavy acts. And while the writing itself is far from of crowning importance, the continuing saga of a deathless entity actually experiencing mortality and journeying through the afterlife is the peak indulgence that’s not unfamiliar to this style in the slightest. If anything, it just proves how Lord Dying know exactly what they’re doing.
It’s also a case where being ‘too much like Mastodon’ is not a criticism with legs under it. They’re one of the most celebrated bands in contemporary metal for a reason; hell, even some of the many hangers-on they’ve accumulated are! It’s fair to say, then, that Lord Dying are in good company, especially when their upward trajectory only seems to be getting steeper and steeper. And when you compare Clandestine Transcendence to where they began, it’s such an obvious apex that it’s almost like a different band entirely. A lot of metal bands never really find themselves in that position, so thank God that Lord Dying are expiditing the process to get it done this well, this quickly.
For fans of: Mastodon, High On Fire, Crowbar
‘Clandestine Transcendence’ by Lord Dying is released on 19th January on MNRK Heavy.
Abhoria
Depths
Be truthful, black-metal enthusiasts—when one of your bands has a new album coming out, before you’ve even heard a second of it, you kind of know exactly how it’ll be. Unless it’s one of the acts famous for rebuilding corners of the genre in their image, you’re unlikely to pluck a name from the aether and have it as a towering monolith to creativity in a genre for which that’s often ancillary. In the case of Abhoria, whose 2020 self-titled debut was candidly the norm for black-metal, the follow-up basically writes itself. They aren’t a household name, nor are they all that transcendent in inspiration, which points resoundingly to a sophomore effort that’s more of the same.
And yeah, it is. It’s still pretty good though, in the way that most black-metal can be buoyed up through the sheer intensity of its own existence. The riffs, the drum thunder, the snarls and the malevolent feel are about on point for Abhoria to illustrate their scenes of a hostile, brutal world. That typically leans into a semantic field of misanthropy that’s probably designed to cut deeper than it does, but again, the bigger picture still matters. Honestly, Abhoria opting to take that in stride is hardly a knock against them, when ‘the bigger picture’ might as well be black-metal innuendo for ‘the most bluntly effective course of action’.
It’s what really drilling into your genre’s fundamentals gets you in black-metal, where there’s more leeway for sheer, severe magnitude over versatility. Other than the weird digital squelch that pierces through They Hunt At Night at a frequency that’s never ignorable, everything’s in its preordained place, and very well to boot. It’s best, however, on a song like The Inexorable Earth, where spine-shattering drum power and an almost trad-metal approach to soloing brings the sort of opulence that black-metal frequently benefits from. That track is also probably Depths’ high mark in terms of utilising Abhoria’s skillset; it certainly stands out a lot more when the dial is cranked up rather than marginally turned. Still, with new vocalist Ben Pitts having admirable range in the realm of vocal necromancy, and the rest of the band serving as a strong backbone behind him, there’s rarely cause on Depths to be outright disappointed.
The amended goalposts that black-metal carries as a rule certainly help them, though Abhoria aren’t totally without merit themselves. On the basis of deep, dark aural decimation, Depths carries itself as well as the marks for this sort of thing could hope for, as another strong addition to the collection. Even if it doesn’t rise to the very top, the good work is still evident, with rare exception to be found, really, across the board. Definitely one worth exploring for the already-initiated—it’s not like that crowd of black-metal anoraks will see an issue with a bit of familiarity, is it?
For fans of: Ashen Horde, Blackbraid, Werewolves
‘Depths’ by Abhoria is released on 19th January on Prosthetic Records.
Words by Luke Nuttall
