ALBUM REVIEW: With All That’s Left – Cold Night For Alligators
The needle on COLD NIGHT FOR ALLIGATORS’ musical compass has been flickering in their expansive pursuit of self, but with their latest studio album, With All That’s Left, it is clear that a constantly evolving, experimental soundscape is where these Danish alt metallers thrive. With All That’s Left is seductive in its sadness and empowering in its personal rage. The album dances between whispering piano lullabies and soul-shattering breakdowns, wrought with the haunting moodiness and sonic detours of SLEEP TOKEN, the emotive crunch of bands like VOLA and BAD OMENS, but maintains an unwavering essence that is distinctly COLD NIGHT FOR ALLIGATORS.
The heaviness of this record is a far cry from their debut album, Course of Events, or their 2018 release, Fervor, having teetered over the edge of progressive metal into an alternative metal sphere that exists outside the confines of categorisation – one they entered with their previous album, The Hindsight Notes. The selective outbursts of harsh vocals and vicious riffs on With All That’s Left are just one point on COLD NIGHT FOR ALLIGATORS’ kaleidoscope of sound. Johan Jack Pedersen envelops every scream with searing melody, and every riff is subdued by a queue of orchestral and synth-laden melancholy, leaving no escape from the intensity of emotion on these ten tracks.
“With All That’s Left is more than an album – it’s a story of reinvention,” the band explain. “We’ve rebuilt ourselves through change, facing loss, fatherhood, and burnout head-on. This record became a vessel for survival and renewal – our most personal and cinematic work yet.”
The title track invokes sounds from a Chinese opera, before the introspective bass lines burst through this intriguingly unpredictable intro, and the album opens with a pensive, pop-leaning track, awash with warbling synths and Pedersen’s entrancing voice. The anthemic power of Dance For You renders the listener a mere puppet at the mercy of its master, the chorus so core-shakingly catchy and the piano so idyllic that it is impossible not to feel revved up.
The album’s lyrics span an array of heart-wrenching truths, from .44 Lifeline’s inclusive nihilism, “Don’t you see that we’re all fucked / As we are trying to figure it out,” to the pain in I Am Only Fear, “I am sick and tired of this game / I think I am ready to collide.” The devastation of loss becomes a harrowing picture of beauty, and the peace from musical catharsis is felt on a universal level.
In The Dark is like a bedside caress, a heartbeat made musical by Pedersen’s lyricism and the light tendrils of melody being plucked, pressed and infused. The vocals in These Blind Spots have the terrifying effect of becoming the voices in your head battling for centre stage, whilst the instrumental composition darts around like an exploding atom. That is, until at just over two and a half minutes Nikolaj Lauszus’ drums lead into a riff that surges with climactic release. By the penultimate track, Astonishing, you might find yourself in a mist-soaked cemetery playing home to a lamenting troupe of absurdists. Is that a xylophone? Maybe. Anything is possible when it comes to COLD NIGHT FOR ALLIGATORS.
Produced by Johan Jack Pedersen, Nikolaj Lauszus, and Mirza Radonjica, and mixed and mastered by Grammy Award-nominated producer and mix engineer Jacob Hansen, With All That’s Left is a jarringly addictive album that will take a gaping bite out of your soul whilst simultaneously soothing your appetite for musical bliss.
With All That’s Left is out now via Prime Collective.
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