The boys went and did it, they released another album containing previous singles “Justified Ego” and “Hel Bent”. It’s been quite a wait since their debut album Origins all the way back in 2017. Just think of all that has changed since then. These guys have too. Same group as before with a delicious new flavor of metal music. Let’s dig in.
I’ve written before about their first single off the album, “Justified Ego” and fortunately they left me plenty more banger tracks to review. Some off this album have become my favorite far beyond the original single (sorry little guy, but the other tracks have more groove). It has to be said again that the production is far better than before, and the songs seem more fleshed out and thoughtful. There has been some serious growth as a group and as individual musicians. The tones are clean, the writing of each song has a great flow to it. A track that was an instant favorite of mine was “Luna De Muerte”, an instrumental track that was a departure from every other song on the album. Starting off gentle and clean, the quiet contemplation is eventually broken with a flurry of guitar and pounding drums. The metal comes right back from whence it came. It is all a great showcase of the instrumental skill and songwriting talent these guys have.
I have to give a small but very special shout out to their second single “Hel Bent” as well. The Viking imagery is something I absolutely love. “Oh weird, a bald bearded white guy loves Viking stuff”. I get it, but also fuck y’all. The artwork and song bang ass, go have a listen.
As I alluded to in the beginning, the songs all have great groove. It is just so damn easy to move to. No matter the pace or feel, everything seems to have this current underneath pulling everything along, always pushing forward. Much of the techniques used remind me of metal circa the early 2010’s, taking advantage of great drum grooves to power forth guitar harmonies that can’t help but make a guy smile. The album is like a return to my early 20’s and I just goddamn love it.
The boys released singles that didn’t even prepare us for what was to come. And I’m not sure I’m particularly upset about that. Any one of these tracks could have been chosen as singles and these guys had a Herculean task ahead of them when deciding what to release first. Give a listen below and see for yourself that each track off of this album is just fantastic. Well done boys.
Beards & Blastbeats 