#melodicmetal — Public Fediverse posts

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愛してエデン？ - Mellows

https://youtu.be/CsMNcU0523c

#metal #KawaiiMetal #MelodicMetal #japan #music #np #NowPlaying #MastoMusic

There was a time in my youth when bands like California’s Atreyu, Killswitch Engage and their ilk were all I wanted to listen to. Whether this was due to the novelty of the sound in its era, coinciding with my novice experience with metal as a whole, or perhaps the reflection of my own earnest angst resonating from the common themes of the scene, records like As Daylight Dies or Lead Sails Paper Anchor marked core albums in my metallic upbringing. However, with only two exceptions, I never kept up with any of these bands as time passed. My tastes shifted and evolved. For a time, I forgot entirely about Atreyu, until the itch to sing a few of their songs in the car became too much to bear. And so, when I saw Atreyu were not only still active, but about to release a new record aptly entitled The End is Not the End, I had to know how almost 20 years of time away changed my appreciation for Atreyu.

One thing that 20 years did not change was Atreyu’s style. Since my introduction to them with Lead Sails Paper Anchor, an album I still hold in high regard for better or for worse, they firmly entrenched their metalcore base with poppy beats, addicting choruses, and earnest, if ham-fisted, lyrics. Thankfully, they also boasted one of the better vocalists in a style hell-bent on employing whiny tenors with unrefined technique, both in harsh and clean styles. If anything, Brandon Saller has only gotten better with time and practice. The rest of the lineup shifted and swirled until settling into its current form in 2020,1 but other than a marked uptick in pop-centric songwriting, Atreyu preserved the core of their 2007 sound remarkably well.

This both works in their favor and leaves me cold. On one hand, killer hit-makers that are impossible to resist (“Break Me,” “All for You”) recall the shockingly effective simplicity of post-grunge-pop acts like Daughtry or Shinedown at their peak. On the other hand, a distinct lack of unique ideas or distinct identity for the vast majority of its 45-ish minute runtime (with the exception of “Ego Death” and “Children of the Light”) leaves me starving for something of substance. At times, as in the generic “Death Rattle,” small songwriting choices (the crowd-core “MOTHERFUCKER” shout being one) cause a minor recoil in my spine as it recalls the more embarrassing moments of my teen years. However, album standouts “Children of Light” and “In the Dark” evoke a legitimate callback to classic In Flames-style melodic death metal, rippling with energetic gallops and even a cool tandem guitar/saxophone solo. These songs don’t go so far as to abandon Atreyu’s pop sensibilities or cheesy lyrics, but they are big fun nonetheless and are sure to please crowds mightily.

Yet I struggle to recall anything from The End is Not the End once it… well… ends. As happy as I am pulling my favorite songs like “All for You” or “In the Dark” for playlist duties—which would eventually allow them to find purchase in my memory—I can’t help but stew in disappointment that nothing here sticks with the immediacy of past bangers like “Doomsday,” “When Two Are One” or “Falling Down.” I can appreciate that The End is Not the End is an altogether more hopeful and uplifting record compared to that angsty, bitter predecessor of my youth, but the shift in tone hasn’t helped the songwriting. On that front, The End is Not the End sounds like Atreyu going through the motions, spinning their wheels, and making very little forward momentum. In turn, I found very little here to grab onto and even less that grabbed me first.

I still want to go to bat for these guys. As many times as I’ve heard my comrades and co-conspirators belittle Atreyu, I can’t help but protect the soft spot I have for them. At the same time, The End is Not the End is not going to convince any of the naysayers, and hasn’t won me over either. There are great songs here with choruses that I would have a blast belting out at a drop of a hat. A couple of small sparks of unexpected heft remind me that Atreyu are, indeed, part of the metal landscape, albeit on the poppiest fringe of the core region. All in all, though, I’m not going to think at all about The End is Not the End 20 years from now. Alas.

Rating: Disappointing.
DR: Use Your Imagination | Format Reviewed: Streamfarm
Label: Spinefarm Records
Websites: atreyuofficial.com | facebook.com/Atreyu
Releases Worldwide: April 24th, 2026

Sölicitör – Enemy in Mirrors Review

By ClarkKent

Sölicitör’s 2020 debut made quite the splash ’round these parts when 4.Öldeneye heaped glorious praise all over it. The five-piece out of Seattle has been quiet since then, releasing an EP in 2022 totaling two songs. Now they return for their sophomore release with a philosophy of more – more songs, more length, and even a couple more instruments (piano, synths). The members wanted to take a more hands-on approach with Enemy in Mirrors, which is why vocalist Amy Lee Carlson lent not only her pipes but also her artistic ability in designing the cover art. While Sölicitör retains their core sound, Enemy in Mirrors promises to be a more melodic journey. Not to worry, this is still your Holdenfather’s Sölicitör, albeit with a touch more nuance.

As Holdeneye described in his review of Spectral Devastation, Sölicitör’s style isn’t as straightforward as it appears on the surface. They find inspiration from ’80s speedy heavy acts like Judas Priest and Iron Maiden, only this time around, they add more melodic elements reminiscent of Bloodletter. The resemblance to the latter is apparent early, as the combination of speed and melodic leads gets “Paralysis” going right out the gates. “Iron Wolves of War” and “We Who Remain” continue this streak while also including some catchy choruses that channel Sölicitör’s influences. When Carlson sings “Flee! Flee in horror!” on “Iron Wolves of War,” I couldn’t help but think of Dickinson’s iconic chorus on “Run to the Hills.” Then, on the chorus of “We Who Remain,” it sounds an awful lot like she’s singing “Defenders of the faith.”1 Sölicitör inject plenty of spirit into their speed, and the addition of melodic leads adds depth and a layer of infectiousness.

Enemy in Mirrors is not just speed, however. The record combines up-tempo velocity with mid-tempo grooves, pianos and synths that build suspense, and, of course, Carlson’s formidable voice to perform songs that prove Sölicitör to be effective storytellers. “Spellbound Mist” is the first to dabble in this more nuanced storytelling, beginning at a slower pace as Carlson croons and casts her spell over the listener. Then it takes a sudden turn on the back half towards furious shredding and thrash that gave me flashbacks of the twists and turns that Helms Deep took on Chasing the Dragon. The final two songs similarly impress in their ability to spin a yarn, beginning with synths that create ghostly atmospheres before melodic riffs and a thrumming bass add to the enchanting soundscape. With this patient buildup, Carlson eventually gets fists pumping with well-timed vocal entrances—singing “I am the deceiver” on “Black Magick (Part I)” and throwing out a creatively pronounced “Ooooh yeah!” on “The Devil’s Hand (Part II).” Both tracks end Enemy in Mirrors on a high note, showcasing Sölicitör’s maturity in songwriting.

I see a parallel between Sölicitör and Helms Deep in that both bands churned out longer sophomore albums than their debuts. In Sölicitör’s case, the length isn’t due to longer songs, but more of them. Unfortunately, this proves my lone gripe, as there’s a slight sag in quality in the back half, which keeps Enemy in Mirrors shy of the coveted 4.Ö. These songs aren’t lacking in the speed department, but they fail to utilize the melodic leads present on the rest of the record. “Fallen Angel” isn’t the longest cut, but it feels like it due to its more uniform structure and lack of hooks. “Crimson Battle Beast” begins with a classic speed intro, but the chorus comes off awkwardly and a bit silly. What these tunes do isn’t necessarily bad, but they sound more bland than the rest. Whether these two, plus the other weaker track, “Enemy in Mirrors,” work for you or not is likely going to be a key deciding factor in how much you enjoy the album.

Enemy in Mirrors is a welcome return after a five-year break, and it’s a promising direction for these talented musicians. If you enjoyed the debut, you’ll be happy to know Sölicitör doesn’t make any core shifts in their sound, and what they do add is a definite improvement. While we would certainly prefer beloved bands to release records more frequently, the most important thing is quality, and Sölicitör has quality in spades. If you like fun, if you like speedy and melodic metal, you owe it to yourself to check this out.

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Gates of Hell Records
Website: Bandcamp | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: September 19th, 2025

#35 #AmericanMetal #Bloodletter #EnemyInMirrors #GatesOfHellRecords #HeavyMetal #HelmsDeep #IronMaiden #JudasPriest #MelodicMetal #Review #Reviews2025 #Sep25 #Sölicitör #SpeedMetal #ThrashMetal

IHLO – Legacy Review

By Owlswald

The creation of an album is a long, arduous process—a truth UK prog trio IHLO knows well. After five years of painstaking work, the group has returned with their sophomore album, Legacy. Over the years, IHLO has shared glimpses of their meticulous creative process via Patreon, revealing the humorous temporary names they gave to demos—like “Szechuan Sauce” and “Banana Pants”—while showing just how demanding the journey has been. Unlike their debut, Union, where they admit they “stumbled into” its dark, brooding atmosphere, IHLO approached Legacy with clear intent, determined to bring the same melancholic, emotional core with them and challenging themselves to craft complex compositions that seamlessly blend their progressive metal, electronic, and pop influences. With Legacy finally here, it’s time to discover if IHLO’s hard work was worth the effort.

Whereas Union was a solid slab of Tesseract worship, Legacy finds IHLO forging a more distinct voice of their own. To be sure, the trio still operates on the djenty side of the prog spectrum, but Legacy is more ambitious, polished and patient, with through-composed songs1 that ebb and flow between intricate passages to monumental crescendos. The trio remains rich in talent. Singer Andy Robison gives Daniel Tompkins (Tesseract) a run for his money, with buttery smooth tones (“Source,” “Replica”), soaring choruses (“Cenotaph,” “Empire”) and sultry crooning (“Source,” “Mute”) that binds Legacy together, grounding IHLO’s progressive experimentation in accessibility. Robison, along with guitarist Phil Monro, provides bright, well-matched layers of harmony with their keys and synths over bouts of Monro’s djent-laden guitar stammers. Drummer Clark McMenemy’s polyrhythms and ghost-noted backbeats create hard-hitting tempos with Neil Peart-esque fills (“Cenotaph,” “Storm,” “Wraith”) and shimmering cymbal work. Clocking in at a hearty 68 minutes and bolstered by slick production that lets every facet of IHLO’s sound shine, Legacy is an investment, but a worthy one where the creative juice is worth the squeeze.

Legacy is structured into two main movements, with interlude “Storm” serving as a natural midpoint. The first half—from “Wraith” to “Empire”—showcases IHLO’s progressive strength through intricate musicianship and dynamic songwriting as the trio weaves diverse influences into a painter’s palette of emotional and musical payoffs. Their willingness to subvert typical song structures and build an engrossing mood from scratch is a hallmark of their songwriting that works to their advantage. “Source” demonstrates this genre-interlacing talent, beginning with a trip-hop Massive Attack feel before launching into tight, percussive grooves with Robison’s excellent vocal harmonies. After building anticipation with a drawn-out, electronic intro, “Wraith” drops into a stuttering, palm-muted verse before an airy chorus and a fantastic guitar solo envelop the listener in a blanket of warm tones. Despite its length, the track never loses purpose, with each evolution feeling deliberate. Radio hit “Empire”—with its striking guitar chords, glittering synths, and vibrant rock beat—and “Replica’s” powerful and infectious songwriting anchor the album’s first twenty-five minutes with Robison’s memorable sing-along hooks and melodies endlessly captivating.

The second movement—from “Mute” to “Signals”—reveals IHLO’s more sensitive, introspective side. The somber and melancholic “Mute,” with its arpeggiated guitars and silky, smooth singing, is a clear departure from Legacy’s earlier, more aggressive qualities. While it reveals a new facet of the group’s sound, it lacks the hooks of earlier tracks, causing a dip in momentum. Thankfully, “Cenotaph’s” strong, driving pulse largely gets things back on track with powerful rhythms and atmospheric guitar building to an epic, hard-hitting conclusion. “Haar”—serving as a would-be closer—jumps right into a triumphant homecoming that leverages a tight rhythmic groove and shimmering keyboards. But then, for some reason, the album keeps going. Closing tracks, “Legacy” and “Signals,” lack purpose and unnecessarily extend the runtime by twenty minutes. The Between the Buried and Me-influenced “Signals” starts strong but suffers from a repetitive, four-minute outro, while the latter lacks gripping hooks, making for an anticlimactic end.

While it may not stick the landing, Legacy is an ambitious and emotive album that largely justifies the group’s five-year creative journey. It evidences IHLO’s evolution, finding their voice in an ever-growing progressive metal landscape. For prog fans who appreciate intricate musicianship and poignant songwriting, Legacy is a rewarding listen and a testament to the fact that some creative journeys are worth the wait.

Rating: Good
DR: N/A | Format Reviewed: Stream
Label: KScope
Websites: ihlo.bandcamp.com | ihlo.co.uk | facebook.com/ihloband
Releases Worldwide: August 29th, 2025

#2025 #30 #Aug25 #BetweenTheBuriedAndMe #BritishMetal #Ihlo #KScope #Legacy #MassiveAttack #MelodicMetal #ProgressiveMetal #Review #Reviews #TesseracT

Flummox – Southern Progress Review

By Kenstrosity

Originally slated to be my main Thing You Might Have Missed feature, Tennessee avant-garde metal quintet Flummox’s fifth LP Southern Progress caught me completely off guard. Attracted to the prompt “their most obnoxious album yet,” I wasn’t sure what to expect from my first exposure to Flummox’s work. I figured it might be weird, but it’s also distinctive, fun, and infectious. Fearlessly creative, deeply detailed, lyrically cutting, and stupidly intelligent, Southern Progress rapidly became my favorite record released so far this year. It doesn’t seem likely now that anything out of the metalverse this year will surpass it.

Southern Progress embodies a rhizomic system of inspirations and influences that, when harnessed by Flummox’s wacky brains, emerges from the soil as something wholly unique in style, sound, and intent. My best attempt to contextualize this material would involve names from the progsphere like Fair to Midland, Native Construct, Pink Floyd, early Queen, and Mike Patton; purveyors of the extreme such as Strapping Young Lad and Slugdge; avant-garde touchstones like Mr. Bungle, Igorrr, and Diablo Swing Orchestra; genre-jumpers such as King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard; and even cinematic composers like Danny Elfman and Hans Zimmer.1 Ultimately, though, there is no comfortable comparison. Flummox are a singular entity of weird, wild, theatrical metal capable of nailing every bizarre idea they throw at me, such that in less than a week, I had a majority portion of Southern Progress’ 57-minute runtime pinned to my psyche. All the while, its candid exposition of the queer and genderfluid experience in the Bible Belt (“Southern Progress”) struck a chord so rarely plucked by music on this sphere, and its inspired exploration of the neurodivergent experience as one of its parallel plot lines (“Executive Dysfunction”) gave me an easy avenue to resonate even more deeply with its voice.

The tricky reality of Southern Progress is that 750 words is woefully insufficient to encompass all that Flummox achieves, but its primary triumph is in universal songwriting excellence. Music like this marks a once-in-a-blue-moon occasion—and an ambitious undertaking—but Flummox makes it look effortless as they balance the beauty of melodious, theatrical compositions with the livid, frothing rabidity of searing, off-kilter riffs, thunderous rhythms, and revolutionary attitude (“Southern Progress,” “Femto’s Theme,” “Long Pork,” “Executive Dysfunction”). While these elements are familiar to anyone with experience in the metalverse, their twisted forms instead leave a vivid impression of something altogether more eccentric and uncanny (“Southern Progress,” “Nesting Doll,” “Locust Eater,” “Coyote Gospel”). Well-defined structures and concrete themes play their part in making sure these warped representations stick. Presenting every unhinged idea, cynical line, and explosive outburst inside a digestible package makes Southern Progress somehow even stranger and more enthralling for its deceiving accessibility (“What We’re In For…,” “Always Something Going Down,” “Siren Shock,” “Flumlindalë”).

In spite of its unquestionable adoption of metallic methods, Southern Progress is an intensely theatrical affair unfit for the genrephobic, but is nonetheless something everyone should experience at least once. Challenging in a different way than Imperial Triumphant or other known creators of what certain pundits call “not music,” Flummox is similarly fearless in their exploration of style and technique, and equally meticulous in application and execution. To that end, Southern Progress’ music is mutated and maniacal, but grounded through several root elements: emotional depth, societal awareness, thoughtful critiques, and artistic integrity. More than just a vehicle for that cogent societal commentary, the potent passion that each member of Flummox hemorrhaged into Southern Progress is unmatched by all except the unfuckwithable technical quality of their writing and performances. The fact that this intangible factor boasts such strong presence inside of, and coalesces so harmoniously with, the tangible product proves that Flummox’s dedication, attention to detail, and intentional artistry contributes meaningful substance and significance not just to Southern Progress on its own, but also to the greater body of metal as we know it today.

It is for this reason that Flummox’s Southern Progress isn’t just an excellent album, but also an important one. Aside from its high artistic merit, Southern Progress is a timely and fierce challenge against the dehumanization of queer, gender-nonconforming, and even neurodivergent communities across the American South—and, by extension, the country—especially by organized religious (read: Christian) entities. But it’s also a celebration, a triumphant expression of pride and love and resilience that only comes from openly and unashamedly discovering, struggling with, and ultimately embodying all that you are in spirit, body, and mind. Everyone deserves to know this feeling without fear of stigmatization, fetishization, violence, or isolation. Southern Progress is an unorthodox and fun, but wildly effective, advocate for that cause.

Rating: Excellent!2
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Needlejuice Records
Websites: flummoxed.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/flummoxband
Releases Worldwide: April 11th, 2025

Show 2 footnotes

1. Specifically, Zimmer’s work for Rango’s OST. ↩
2. You should expect to see me within a year or so, Contrite and ashamed that I didn’t award this the coveted Iconic score! ↩

#2025 #45 #AmericanMetal #Apr25 #AvantGarde #BlackMetal #DannyElfman #DeathMetal #DiabloSwingOrchestra #ExperimentalMetal #FairToMidland #Flummox #FolkMetal #Gospel #HansZimmer #Igorrr #ImperialTriumphant #KingGizzardAndTheLizardWizard #MelodicMetal #MikePatton #MrBungle #NativeConstruct #NeedlejuiceRecords #PinkFloyd #ProgressiveMetal #Queen #Review #Reviews #Slugdge #SouthernProgress #StrappingYoungLad