Eluveitie – Ànv Review

By Twelve

Unlike a certain Angry Metal Overlord, I really liked Origins. Up to 2014, I had only a dim awareness of Eluveitie, save that they were a Swiss group that did not believe in keyboards. Origins was my gateway into folk metal, an album I found exciting and refreshing, and Eluveitie’s live show in support of it is still one of my top concert experiences. For over twenty years, Eluveitie has been a force in folk metal. Armed with many instruments and a metal core, they are now on their ninth full-length album, Ànv. What have these giants of the genre cooked up for us this time?

The hallmarks of Eluveitie’s sound are all present on Ànv: melodeath riffs from ye ole aughts, the violins, Chrigel Glanzmann’s shouts, and Fabienne Erni’s cleans—it’s the Eluveitie you love or love to hate, continuing their trajectory from Helvetios through Origins and up to Antegnatos. As ever, the Swiss octet blends traditional Celtic folk, Gaulish themes, and modern metal into their music. “Aeon of the Crescent Moon” and “The Prodigal Ones” are instantly recognizable as Eluveitie, with fast-paced riffing, vocal duels, and Lea-Sophie Fischer’s violin, either keeping pace or layering in emotion. Another familiar hallmark is the use of folky interludes like “Memories of Innocence,” a jig with an eastern feel that gives Glazmann’s mandolin and whistles their moments to shine alongside Fischer’s lively fiddling.

It’s all familiar, and a touch predictable too—Ànv feels safe as Eluveitie albums go. It’s odd to remark that an album performed by an octet playing more than fifteen instruments between them is predictable, but if you’ve followed Eluveitie at all since Evocation, you know what to expect. “Premonition” is standard Eluveitie fare and could have easily fit on Origins. It features In Flames-esque riffs that are more texture than flavor, followed by a brief flute appearance and lively violin over the chorus. “The Harvest” follows a near-identical formula, but executes it more intensely, which makes it a stronger song; this time, one that would be at home on Helvetios. “Ànv” feels like an outtake from Evocation II—Erni’s singing is passionate, but the formless music makes it forgettable. In each case, you know what you’re in for before the song reaches the minute mark.

There are a few genuine surprises on Ànv, but I’m sad to say I dislike most of them. “Taranoías” is a hard-hitting beast of a song right up until the minute mark, when Erni takes over from Glazmann’s furious growls and performs what I keep thinking is the chorus to a different song. “All Is One” similarly sounds like it’s found its way to the wrong album. Here, Eluveitie perform their best Nightwish impression, reaching for emotional highs in a very clichéd fashion. In neither case is the decision bad in isolation, but both are tonally mismatched from the rest of Ànv. What’s particularly frustrating is that in both examples, Erni is the odd musician out, despite being a very strong singer, evidenced particularly by her terrific performance in “Awen.”

But the most surprising part of Ànv is that it doesn’t feel all that much like folk metal, especially when compared to past Eluveitie albums. Often, it feels like modern melodeath with a violin. The flutes and hurdy gurdy are produced so weakly as to slide under the radar in most songs. Much of the folk rests in the three metal-less interlude tracks, none of which feel essential. Instead, songs like “All Is One” suggest an interest in a poppier, more “modern” sound.1 In this sense, there is something akin to a division in Ànv, making for a disjointed listen of good songs (“The Harvest,” “Awen”), forgettable songs (“The Prodigal Ones,” “Aeon of the Crescent Moon”), folk tunes (“Anamcara,” “Memories of Innocence”), and “All Is One.”

I’ve been a fan of Eluveitie for some time—I know that authenticity is important to this band. And don’t get me wrong, Ànv is certainly folk metal and certainly Eluveitie. It is also inconsistent and signifies a direction that I hope Eluveitie are not set on. I’ve loved this band for the way it blends folk and metal music. Unfortunately, that makes it very difficult to feel much love for Ànv.

Rating: 2.5/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Nuclear Blast Records
Websites: eluveitie.ch | facebook.com/eluveitie
Releases Worldwide: April 25th, 2025

#25 #2025 #Amaranthe #Amorphis #Ànv #Apr25 #ArchEnemy #Eluveitie #Epica #FolkMetal #InFlames #Nightwish #NuclearBlastRecords #Review #Reviews #SwissMetal

Buried Realm – The Dormant Darkness Review

By Owlswald

Colorado’s Buried Realm, the technical melodic death metal project of multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Josh Dummer, has built a steady following since 2017’s The Ichor Carcinoma. This is largely because— alongside his role as the primary writer and producer of Buried Realm’s music— Dummer is one hell of a guitarist. Additionally, he enlists a prominent cast of guest musicians for each album, adding another layer of proficiency to his progressive soundscape.1 While Dummer’s talent and networking ability are compelling, 2020’s Embodiment of the Divine received a mixed reception from AMG’s own Twelve. Since then, Dummer has made notable upgrades through the addition of drummer Heikki Saari (Fintroll, ex-Norther) and the outsourcing of post-production duties, resulting in a heavier and more polished sound on Buried Realm’s 2022 self-titled third album. With these refined elements and the promise of further evolution, I was eager to delve into The Dormant Darkness to see what I would find lurking in the shadows.

What I found was a great album. Building upon the foundation of Buried Realm, The Dormant Darkness finds Dummer taking the next step in his power-tinged melodeath assault. The opening barrage of “Bloodline Artifice,” with its relentless blasts, tremolo onslaught, and visceral screams, channels the power of tech-death giants like Allegaeon. At the same time, the album’s overall melodicism is indicative of The Living Infinite-era Soilwork. Guest appearances include the likes of Per Nilsson (Scar Symmetry) and Christopher Amott (ex-Arch Enemy), who fortify tracks like “Human Code” and “Futuristic Hollow Nation” with sweeps, dives, and wails galore. Saari’s intricate rhythms and colorful accents amplify Buried Realm’s dazzling riff craft. Additionally, Dummer’s Laiho-esque rasps intertwine with Bjorn “Speed” Strid’s (Soilwork) roars and Christian Älvestam’s (ex-Scar Symmetry) soaring choruses to add sophistication and depth. With a well-rounded mix that delivers plenty of punch and low-end heft, The Dormant Darkness features a concentrated and layered sound that is rich, heavy, technical, and a ton of fun.

For those who crave virtuosity, Buried Realm will not disappoint. Guitar wizardry is delivered in droves, with memorable solos, melodic leads, and powerful shredding across the record’s eight tracks. Nilsson’s dynamic fretwork at the heart of “Human Code,” Amott’s dive-bomb acrobatics within “Futuristic Hollow Nation,” and Daniel Freyberg’s (ex-Children of Bodom) blazing solo on “A Futile Endeavor” stand out as particularly jaw-dropping moments.2 Dummer and Saari’s merciless grooves— shredding and hammering with precision— strengthen the album’s star-studded guest list, constructing Buried Realm’s tech-heavy compositions. Contrasting Buried Realm’s unyielding virtuosity are Älvestam’s uplifting serenades on songs like “Jaws of the Abyss” and “Futuristic Hollow Nation” which present striking melodies and refreshing hooks that draw me back again and again. Ultimately, while the constellation of guest musicians warrant attention, The Dormant Darkness is filled with highlights that will appeal to a wide audience.

With its intensity and compositional depth, The Dormant Darkness could have easily become overwhelming. Indeed, the songwriting periodically suffers from overly dense passages and abrupt transitions. The disjointed vocal exchange between Dummer and Strid before the chorus in “Human Code,” for example, is jarring, as is the song’s mid-section where a whirlwind of blasts and leads stutters and starts erratically. That said, while occasional missteps somewhat detract from the album’s pacing and flow, they are minor quibbles in a record rife with strong songwriting. Furthermore, Francesco Ferrini’s (Fleshgod Apocalypse) poignant orchestral arrangements on tracks like “Ophidian Dreams” and “Where the Armless Phantoms Glide, Pt. II” provide atmospheric grandeur and emotional depth, mitigating aural fatigue and upholding sonic balance.

Overall, The Dormant Darkness is a blast. The album is the culmination of Buried Realm’s evolution and proves that Dummer’s persistence and dedication have paid off handsomely. It’s full of highlights and genuinely impressive moments, blending technical prowess with memorable melodic hooks, exceptional guest contributions, and compositional maturity. Despite the occasional minor slipup, the album’s technical and charming melodeath personality seizes my attention from the start and maintains its spectral grasp until the record’s final notes fade into the ether. With The Dormant Darkness, Buried Realm has established itself as a formidable force— one that melodeath fans won’t want to miss.

Rating: Great!
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Self-Released
Websites: buriedrealm.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/buriedrealm
Releases Worldwide: April 4th, 2025

#2025 #40 #Allegaeon #AmericanMetal #Apr25 #ArchEnemy #BuriedRealm #ChildrenOfBodom #DeathMetal #FleshgodApocalypse #MelodicDeathMetal #PowerMetal #ProgressiveDeath #ProgressiveMetal #Review #Reviews #ScarSymmetry #SelfReleased #Soilwork #SpaceMetal #SymphonicMetal #TechnicalDeathMetal #TheDormantDarkness

Arch Enemy – Blood Dynasty Review

By Dolphin Whisperer

Incepted as an offshoot of Carcassian lineage, early breakout albums Wages of Sin (2001) and Doomsday Machine (2005) spread like wildfire in the emerging world of digital accessibility. In particular, clips from the 2006 DVD Live Apocalypse, popped around early YouTube further quenching the thirst for the powerful live performances that the once ravenous act possessed—at least that’s my memory of how the melodeath-leaning Swedes came to be a global powerhouse. Arch Enemy’s current incarnation does not lack stage-ready talent, of course—professionals thrive on the tour. The still vicious Alissa White-Gluz (ex-The Agonist) and youthful shredder Joey Concepcion (ex-Armageddon,1 ex-The Absence) round out the strength of time-tested veterans. But with the hunger of success so satiated, what left does Arch Enemy have to fuel their 12th album, Blood Dynasty?

Succeeding primarily on the flash of sticky songs and not engrossing albums, Arch Enemy has little reason to play anything more than a bit of what their fans want and a bit of what they want. In this sense, founding guitarist and primary songwriting contributor Michael Amott feeds off of his second guitarist for energy. While Nevermore shredder Jeff Loomis2 is far from a slouch on the fretboard, his histrionic contributions seemed to follow Arch Enemy down a path of slower builds, chunkier riff platforms, and moodier atmospheres that didn’t always gel with the typically brighter appeal that cemented their lofty status. Particularly on 2022’s preceding Deceivers, the pace had grown so slow that getting to any of blistering guitar heroism—whether from Amott or Loomis—felt like a chore.

In fresh character Concepcion’s ’80s tinged trades with Amott bring a lot to the Blood Dynasty table, with Arch Enemy breezing through certain tracks with the fanciful flair of guitar pyrotechnics. Early cut “Dream Stealer” brings with it a Judas Priest-indebted whammy-to-meltdown solo tirade that highlights the axeslingers’ chemistry well. And later cuts “Don’t Look Down” and “Blood Dynasty” lead with the synth-boosted, mid-paced power/melodeath fist-pump that you’d hear in a galloping Kalmah or late era Dark Tranquillity piece. Truthfully, though, Blood Dynasty’s biggest hit, in its soulful and faithful cover of olde French heavy metal act Blaspheme’s “Vivre Libre,” comes when Arch Enemy, quite literally, is not trying to be Arch Enemy at all, White-Gluz eschewing any harsh vocal stylings for a gruff and joyful croon. But this kind of fun feels right in a late career album—quick hitters loaded with light-hearted riffage and falsetto wails (“A Million Suns,” “Paper Tiger,” respectively)—and a full load of it could have spelled well for Arch Enemy decriers.

However, true to the typical Arch Enemy experience, a number of songs still exist in the too familiar or too uneventful realm that weigh down the whole of Blood Dynasty. There’s an irony to the theme of “March of the Miscreants,” a festival-ready machination—complete with a bridge ready for “Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey” call and response—about how the underdog can’t be sold and can’t be bought, an ethos that doesn’t sit well while listening to one of the largest metal bands in the world. And between that conundrum, the alternative rock anthemics of “Illuminate the Path,” and the only slightly deathened power metal romps that close the journey (“The Pendulum,” “Liars & Thieves”), Blood Dynasty trips over its most cohesive and swaggering elements to pump out tunes that feel rollicking enough to appeal to fans of modern acts like Unleash the Archers or Frozen Crown without letting harsh vocal moments steer them too far astray. White-Gluz has a diverse and practiced voice that ensures that none of these detours ever sound unpleasant, but the frequent urge to skip these painted-with-broad-strokes cuts persists.

Arch Enemy has nothing to prove at this stage. Blood Dynasty holds a higher than expected percentage of fun-inducing tracks that should serve plenty for long-time fans—high bombast, easy-to-digest, chorus-loaded, melodic death(ish) metal. At its most offensive, Arch Enemy simply delivers repeatable words and over horns-up riffs that act as heavy metal placeholders, recognizable as aggressive noise but built to blend in. For those just dipping their toes into the world of amplified abandon, this less extreme endeavor may even be preferable, a shareable, attainable badge of honor. But if your coworker recommends you Blood Dynasty, you can likely blow their mind with something better.3

Rating: 2.5/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Century Media | Bandcamp
Websites: archenemy.band | archenemyofficial.bandcamp.com
Releases Worldwide: March 28th, 2025

#25 #2025 #ArchEnemy #Blaspheme #BloodDynasty #CenturyMediaRecords #DarkTranquillity #HeavyMetal #JudasPriest #Kalmah #Mar25 #MelodicDeathMetal #Review #Reviews #SwedishMetal

Aversed – Erasure of Color Review

By Dolphin Whisperer

Melodeath is an old, reliable friend for many a metalhead. Ever since the In Flames and Arch Enemies of the World took an anthemic and accessible version of the Gothenburg sound to the masses throughout the ’90s and ’00s, countless acts and other regional sounds have emerged from rollicking riff and less-than-deathly vocal inclusions. But combined with the right personal flair—a modern melding of blackened, jazzned, and altned influences much like contemporary wildcards Dawn of Ouroboros or Vintersea—melodic extreme metal forms have a growing presence in the hands of those who came of age with this musical history as their guide. Imitation breeds iteration, and, combined with adoration, the heart hopes to find a path alongside its infatuations, not just in shadow. Aversed walks the walk and Erasure of Color talks the talk.

As yet another product of a Berklee pedigree, in part, the Massachusetts-hailing Aversed displays a technical polish across their languished and rifftacular displays that saturates Erasure of Color far beyond mere hero worship. Rather than use these exemplary qualifications to noodle and sweep songs to oblivion, guitarist and primary songwriter Sungwoo Jeong runs with his talents through a gamut of heavy metal influences, from the Jeff Loomis-indebted (Nevermore, ex-Arch Enemy) squeals and scale runs (“Lucid Decapitation,” “Burn”) to a classic heavy metal strum and wail (“Departures”) that shade the languid messages sewn through Erasure. Of course, Jeong can shred and does so in flashes of neoclassical brilliance once cutthroat chords and rattling bass runs build tension enough to will an electric clearing (“Cross to Bear” and “Departure” having the wildest solos). Compared to the full-length debut, 2021’s Impermanent, the structures here are tighter, darker, and loaded with an expedited drama.

Emotion comes first, whether at Jeong’s nimble articulations or new vocalist Sarah Hartman’s vast array of screeching, tearing, and slithering harsh and clean vocal techniques. And through languishing cry, soulful croon, and whammy-kissed solo, Aversed builds a world through Erasure that’s as detailed as it is immediate. Churning riffs pave the way for Hartman to unleash laryngeal assaults of growing intensity, equally likely to find feral shrill (“To Cover Up the Sky,” “Lucid Decapitation”) as they are full-chested clean belting (“Inexorable,” “Departure”). It may seem that Hartman’s ferocious and elegant climbs drive the growth of each of Erasure’s numbers, but Jeong’s blend of Björriff to bright metalcore chase, and thrashy groove to swaying treble dive guitar action, carries just as much the energetic arc. Covered in echoing arpeggios (“Lucid Decapitation”), scorching bends (“Burn,” “Erasure of Color”), and unstoppable charges (“To Cover…”) Erasure wears a guitar identity that’s toothsome and exhilarating.

However, as strong as the pull of Aversed’s fervent rhythms and dreamlike melodies are on the best cuts from Erasure, its back half finds a more tepid momentum. It’s hard to say where a song like “Solitary” belongs on an album like this as its ballad-like nature neither swells with grandiosity of similar closer “Departures” nor slams, at its conclusion, with the level of thuggishness of the preceding “Burn.” And with the burst of speed that the title track injects after “Solitary” and before the acoustic interlude “Yearning,” the inherent tempo jostle that succeeds within many tracks feels bumpy at the macro level—really, Aversed has an exacting feel for acceleration and easing within the confines of each individual piece. Erasure doesn’t have a higher-level concept to spin, though, so any dip in quality or overall flow—even if no song is ever bad—is to its slight detriment.

Alas, it’s easy to love the best of what Aversed has to offer with Erasure of Color, its clanging rhythms and finessed guitar weeping sticking readily to memory with its most careful hooks. Finding contemporary touchstones adjacent to the blackened melodic tech of Australia’s Freedom of Fear, the hypnotic whammy abuse of the frenetic Fallujah, and accessible progressive aim of Vintersea, Aversed emboldens the forward-thinking melodeath scene to make an effort to be more riff-driven, more hook-wielding, and more vocally distinct. Erasure of Color does everything but paint Aversed as a one-trick pony. And in time, I’m certain1 that Aversed, in their impassioned and empathetic lashings, will find even more weaponized and wide-reaching aggression.

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: M-Theory Audio | Bandcamp
Websites: aversed.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/aversedmetal
Releases Worldwide: March 21st, 2025

#2025 #35 #AmericanMetal #ArchEnemy #Aversed #DawnOfOuroboros #ErasureOfColor #Fallujah #InFlames #MTheoryAudio #Mar25 #MelodicDeathMetal #Nevermore #ProgressiveDeathMetal #ProgressiveMetal #ProgressiveMetalcore #Vintersea