Atreyu – The End Is Not The End (Spinefarm Records) [Spike]Atreyu have spent the last few years performing a high-wire act that would have broken a lesser band. By deconstructing their sound through the
Front Room and
Season Of The Witch phases, they’ve essentially been live-streaming their own evolution.
With The End Is Not The End, the trilogy reaches its conclusion, and it’s a record that proves that “growing up” doesn’t have to mean “slowing down.” It’s an expansive, cinematic bit of work that understands that a massive, arena-sized chorus only works if the foundations are still built on iron and grit.
The album hits the floor with the title track, The End Is Not The End, and the production is immediately striking. It’s polished, certainly, but it possesses a heavy-set muscularity that prevents it from feeling sanitized. Brandon Saller’s vocals have never sounded more confident, there’s a narrative weight to his delivery that feels properly earned after two decades in the van.
It leads into Immortal and The Way You Sound, tracks that showcase the band’s ability to weave electronic textures into their metallic core without losing the “shove” of the rhythm section.
What stands out on this release is the pacing. Tracks like The Forevermore and Drowning move with a restless energy, balancing a white-hot aggression with the kind of soaring, cathartic hooks that have become the band’s hallmark.
There’s a sophisticated level of songwriting here; they aren’t just chasing a radio hit, they are building an atmosphere. It reminds me of that specific, mid-career pivot Avenged Sevenfold performed, a sound that is as much about the cinematic scale as it is about the riff.
The middle stretch, featuring Deathless and Saviour, highlights the collaborative friction within the band. Dan Jacobs and Travis Miguel’s guitar work remains needle-fine, cutting through the symphonic swells with a surgical precision.
This is watching a band that has finally stopped trying to replicate their past and started defining their future. By the time we hit the sprawling ambition of Siren Song, the trilogy feels complete.
Instead of offering a tidy resolution, the record concludes with The Hope Of A New Day, a track that feels like a final act of defiance. Atreyu haven’t just finished a trilogy; they’ve created a roadmap for how a veteran band can remain vital without sacrificing their soul.
It’s been a fascinating journey through these three phases, and The End Is Not The End is the heavy, shimmering proof that the destination was well worth the transit. I’m walking away from this one with the realization that Atreyu are currently playing for much higher stakes than the “next big thing” crowd.
It’s a reminder that the best stories are the ones that refuse to finish where you expect them to.
8/10Since The Fire – Remains Embraced (Independent) [Spike]Northeast Pennsylvania has a long-standing reputation for being a primary breeding ground for some of the most stubborn, hard-working metal acts in the tri-state area. Since The Fire are the latest standard-bearers of that legacy.
Formed back in 2010, they’ve spent the better part of fifteen years refining a sound that refuses to settle into a single comfortable frequency. Their latest EP, Remains Embraced, is a four-track exercise in balance, an auditory landscape that understands the “whisper-clean” quiet just as well as it understands the high-velocity “raging mayhem.”
The EP hits the pavement with Cuntrol, a track that makes its intent clear through sheer rhythmic bullying. The riffs possess a “saw-blade” quality, cutting through the mix with a surgical precision that highlights their technical death metal influences without losing the groove.
It’s followed by Noose, which pulls back just enough to let a bit of atmospheric gloom leak through the cracks. The vocal delivery here is particularly impressive, moving from a earth-moving roar to a pained strain that feels entirely earned, reflecting a sophistication likely born from their interest in classical structures.
What’s most striking about this release is the band’s refusal to keep things short and tidy. While tracks like Brutaful (a title that perfectly captures their “brutal-yet-beautiful” ethos) provide the high-velocity jolt, the record’s true weight is found in the closer, Whispers.
Clocking in at nearly nine minutes, it’s a sprawling, cinematic descent into the band’s more progressive tendencies. It moves through movements of sustained tension and feedback-laden lulls, proving that Since The Fire have the focus to handle long-form storytelling without losing the physical impact of the riff.
Since The Fire aren’t just offering a few heavy riffs to fill a gap; they’ve delivered a manifesto for their own survival after a decade and a half on the circuit. Remains Embraced is a record of sharp edges and uncomfortable honesty, and by the time Whispers finally snaps into silence, you’re left with the realization that this lot are playing for much higher stakes than the average “next big thing.”
It’s a vital, properly noisy release suggests the Pennsylvania underground is still an excellent place worth looking for noise with this much soul. 8/10
Hiraki & Meejah – Interwoven (Pelagic Records) [Matt Bladen]
A collaboration between two Danish acts that met at a The Ocean concert in Rosklide. Mai Soon Young Øvlisen of Meejah was asked by Loïc Rossetti of the band if she was ok as floods of memories came to her during the incredibly affecting set.
After that faithful meeting Meejah and Hiraki collaborated with many other artists separately, but the industrial synth-punk trio and experimental artist were still drawn to ideas conjured during that faithful The Ocean set meeting lighting designer Pierre Roi Des Forêts, leading to bring them closer to this collaboration, as Loic Rossetti appears on first track Redirect Revenge as if completing the journey.
They set about exchanging musical backgrounds, skills combining aggression, introspection, existentialism while also shifting and both of their styles to complete and contradict each other. The four tracks here are split as two are Meejah featuring Hiraki then the others are Hiraki featuring Meejah, it’s forced Meejah to be a heavier version of herself while Hiraki have had to dial back the noise for a more expressive palette.
That’s not to say you can’t tell the difference because you obviously can, when it’s Hiraki driving the bus, this are louder and more volatile as Meejah becomes unfettered and angry, while on the other side Hiraki bring a fuzzy drive to Meejah’s complex patterns of hope.
It’s not a straightforward release, but with so much creative inspiration behind it, these two artists of the Danish scene have created a collective much like The Ocean, where various genres merge at an apex of emotion, no one force dictating, rather combining as one unit. 8/10
Norna/Legbiter – Norna/Legbiter (Pelagic Records) [Matt Bladen]
A more traditional split album now with each band giving three tracks to show you what they do. Both Norna and Legbiter are from Sweden and come have been plugging their heavy across the country for a while now.
All veterans of the underground but with two distinct styles that are rooted in the uncompromising 90’s styles of Quicksand, Helmet, Superheaven and more. This distinction means you can pick out who is who but the transition isn’t jarring, both are very heavy, aggressive and want to make your ears ring, just from different sides of the wide genre pool.
Legbiter get the first trio, this foursome are very clearly inspired by hardcore and 90’s alt metal, jarring harsh riffs and woozy vocals, it’s got a lot of Deftones to it, the percussion insistent on Worms, as they shift into some rawness on Speedball.
Hardcore beginnings are strong on the first two but with Major Motion they build rapidly into more incendiary immediacy, though as it’s their longest song they branch out into shoegaze shimmers, climaxing in a heap of angst and emotions. These three tracks are the whole tone of what Legbiter do. Short sparks of loudness that catch you off guard but leave you wanting more, as they strategically add some nuance.
Norna are a different beast, this is building demolishing post-metal/doom, lumbering, dissonant but restrained flashes of horror from our own world rather than far off galaxies. This is music that is based on thought over Legbiters feeling, they want disquiet, moments of silence that linger just before the cavernous riff comes back, vocals that are barely human (from ex-Breach man Tomas Lijedahl).
This is Caveman noises from Einstein brains, sequenced so the run times increase as we go, transitioning between the lighting of their spilt buddies into their sonic thunder. Eyes Of God moves them towards Neurosis and early Mastodon as sludge is poured into you ear drums.
The closing Serpents Of Gold is another doom mongering track but tells of Norna’s want to reduce their sonic destruction to truncated movements for this EP, which works well to not totally isolate either band. This split is great introduction to both bands, whether you like it aggressive and emotional or slow and sinister, or maybe both, this split is Venn Diagram of heavy music. 8/10
