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..::OPIS::..

Gone are the theatrics and bombast of previous entries; gone are the constant choir and strings sections. In their place is a pure album that is melodic, technical, and groovy. The finger-style interludes are more thematically embedded. A new bassist absolutely destroys. The first two minutes makes the opening pitch: welcome to Apoptosis, a perfect Allegaeon album.

If you squint, it’s not too hard to see the roots of this album scattered across their discography. This album is different, but not so different that it leaves you scratching your head. Where previous albums were constantly technical, this album dials it back. Sweep picking and fast passages are there, but significantly less so. Melodic elements take the forefront and really shine on tracks like “Stellar Tidal Disruption” and the title track. There are riffs which, heard at a distance, could be mistaken for a tune by any number of melodic death metal greats.

This album is confident, the work of a band with nothing to prove and firing on all cylinders. Tracks are tight and to the point, while solos are soulful and emotional instead of competing for Most Technical Guitarist of the Year. Even the lone acoustic track takes a breath; instead of being an out of place barrage of flamenco fingerstyle, it’s more restrained and thought out compared to the showmanship of previous albums. For a band whose lineup has changed almost completely in three albums, it sure feels like they’ve landed on a winning combination.

What I love most about Apoptosis is how it captures the energy and momentum of all their previous highs, while leaving all the accoutrements by the wayside. Only one track has a stringed intro, ‘Metaphobia’ makes excellent use of choral vocals to drive home what could have been black metal screams. And throughout the whole album, there’s a constant groove to it that only shows up sporadically on previous albums. (“1.618” and “Proponent for Sentience III – The Extermination” come to mind).

Of course, I can’t not mention the vocals. Allegaeon flirted with clean vocals on Proponent For Sentience, but on Apoptosis they really shine. Used sparingly but effectively, they make tracks like “Tsunami and Submergence” pop when leveraged against melodic sections. Yet like the other elements of the album, the vocals are balanced. Whereas clean vocals make a fresh play, so too do even more extreme vocals. Slam gutturals make an appearance, and while they tend to be polarizing, I find that their sparing use lends a brutal novelty that works well. This is yet another evolutionary improvement to their sound, and the result drives home the two extremes which feature prominently in the music.

Those extremes are tied together by the central theme of the album. Apoptosis itself is the process of programmed cellular death, which in turn leads to further development. So one could interpret the theme as death and rebirth, and I find that the flow of songs reinforces this. Songs alternate between aggressive and uplifting and the sense of destruction followed by creation permeates every moment.

Add to all this the fact that the production is a notch above their other albums, and it’s hard to see Apoptosis as anything other than perfection. Between the ultra clean guitar work (featuring what I can only describe as the perfect platonic ideal of tone), the bass ripping through with regularity, and intense drumming, this album is easily a front runner for my album of the year. Head and shoulders above all their other efforts, Allegaeon have created something outstanding. This album should be on everyone’s playlist.

Charles

The new album from Allegaeon just dropped and it's an absolute beast. Following their 2016 album "Proponent for Sentience", "Apoptosis" marks the band's fifth full-length release and sees them moving further into technical and experimental grounds but still staying true to their already well defined sound. For any fan of technical death this should be a real treat. And it doesn't take long to know that once it starts running. With a two minute intro, they showcase everything that this album is about, going through guitar riff savagery, speedy leads, stand-out bass lines, crazy drums a dash of acoustic guitar. You don't have a chance to get bored because they pour all their aces on you from the very beginning and then keep up that standard all the way to the end of the record.

Allegaeon's style should be easier to get into than most bands in this genre. If you've heard them before, you know that they do a great job at combining technical and melodic elements to make their songs really appealing. And in this new release, they have refined their craft even further so that it is more tight and intense while maintaining that same groove and melody shining through. The blistering speed in the pedals is certainly an element that will draw a lot of attention but the guitars don't fall behind, churning riff after riff of utter madness. The pace of the music is incredibly dynamic and oftentimes invites you to bang your head until it pops off. But there is also a lot of intricate wizardry happening beneath the flashy appearance with progressive twists seeping in from time to time and an overall affinity for filling all the empty spaces with well thought details to keep a sense of continuity throughout the song. The guitar leads also pump up the energy with ridiculous speed and shamelessly steal the spotlight with no restraint. And it really gets nasty is when the bass takes the fore-front and when the guttural vocals start slaying through your ears.

"Apoptosis" is also the subject of some killer production work that keeps it sounding sharp, clean and very full. Sometimes it actually builds up to what can be called an "epic wall of sound", courtesy of soaring lead melodies and machine gun style riffing and drums that don't let a fraction of a second slip by without being shattered by the deluge of overdriven grinding. The entire mix simply drips badassity and creates an explosive personality for the album that cannot be contained in any known rules of decency. It is preposterous (in all the good ways).

But the only thing that bothers me is the same thing that was wrong with their previous record. When you just stack lunacy upon lunacy upon more lunacy, it gets a bit oversaturated to the point where you can't really taste it as well. They just pump song after song with this "In Your Face" recipe and it tends to get a bit repetitive, not in creativity cos' that is way over the top, but in the vibe of the record. It says the same thing from beginning to end. However, this issue is slightly addressed with a few moments that break the pattern like a few very surprising and striking insertions of clean vocals. They also unplug the death metal monsters and switch to acoustic in "Colors of the Currents" and the atmospheric intro for "Tsunami and Submergence" is one of the most unexpected things. These are minor details thrown into the colossus of aggression but they make a big difference and actually tune down the redundancy of the record from being a big issue to just a minor glitch. Apoptosis is a must for any fan of technical death metal and also an album that might attract new people to the genre thanks to its strong melodic and groovy side. Horns up for Allegaeon! You got a seriously sick banger on your hands.

andreipianoman



..::TRACK-LIST::..

1. Parthenogenesis 02:14
2. Interphase // Meiosis 05:08
3. Extremophiles (b) 05:54
4. The Secular Age 04:36
5. Exothermic Chemical Combustion 04:43
6. Extremophiles (a) 04:02
7. Metaphobia 04:13
8. Tsunami and Submergence 06:26
9. Colors of the Currents 02:38
10. Stellar Tidal Disruption 06:06
11. Apoptosis 10:18



..::OBSADA::..

Riley McShane - lead vocals
Greg Burgess - guitars, classical guitar
Michael Stancel - guitars
Brandon Michael - bass
Brandon Park - drums



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plvsV_J4WHM


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