ALBUM REVIEW: Where The Light Leaves – Varials
Right okay, it’s time to fess up – who hurt VARIALS? As the most emotionally-charged release to date from the Philadelphia heavy unit, new album Where The Light Leaves is a masterclass in getting heavy and crashing out. This new chapter sees the band fully realised, hellbent on absolutes and crowdkilling through the pain.
This record is the closest metalcore is going to get to a villain origin story, as deathcore tropes have finally pulled the extreme metallers to the dark side. The past three releases, namely 2017’s Pain Again, 2019’s In Darkness and 2022’s Scars For You To Remember, has addressed the hurt and mental devastation of being trapped in a mindset of your own making. Where The Light Leaves serves as a culmination of that negativity, built from years of abuse, as a pressure cooker of explosive proportions.
VARIALS leave no room for explanation with sledgehammer style guitars and full set screams. The record cauterised and scolds with tight percussion and menacing breakdowns. There’s little room for texture and nuance, but this doesn’t hinder the record’s reception.
As the track list swings from murky subterranean interludes of ambient noise to full on nuclear detonation, everything in VARIALS‘ path is bloodied and bruised, a wrecking site inflicting damage without reason. It’s refreshing to hear this in the simplicity of the record, in the fleeting moments when it becomes technical, it’s done incredibly well. It’s a blessing and a curse, as through its runtime, this becomes all encompassing and relentless, without the need to sound samey.
There’s definitely a particular mindset needed to enjoy this album and its nu-mental implications in full. It’s definitely sharper and more vital than its contemporaries in KUBLAI KHAN, TRAITORS, and COUNTERPARTS. With this record, depth is measured in its punch in tracks like No Lie Untouched and Conscious Collapse. Whilst the self-indulgent lyrics feed on despair and chaos, its impact is felt in its delivery rather than its craft. Most of all, in the way that everything feels orderly, it makes it seem effortless, opting for a really natural sounding process to the album. The moments of lull between the more aggressive songs, feel longing and deep with regret. The Hurt Chamber, sat in the middle of the record, breathes with that introspective need to understand those moments of brutality.
Where The Light Leaves is not revolutionary. What it does do incredibly well is absolutely polish a craft that has been in development for a decade, longer if we talk about genre and that unbreakable heavy sound. The singles stand exceedingly well on their own. In a setlist, they’d be untouchable, and that’s where they’ll really see the impact of this record.
Amongst it all, VARIALS are underrated champions of the extreme. Always thriving and bringing technical excellence to their community, but usually sidelined in conversations about what the genre can bring. In some ways, their sound changes so drastically in past records that they chameleon themselves within the pantheon of subgenres. With the court of public opinion on their side, and a statement piece like this, Where The Light Leaves could change the game. With this release, the pain is not over yet, it’s only just beginning.
Rating: 8/10
Where The Light Leaves is out now via Fearless Records.
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