TRACK REVIEW: Northlane – Obelisk

On November 20th Sydney based Metalcore/ Progressive Metal band NORTHLANE released Rot, premiering new vocalist Marcus Bridge after accepting audition tapes when original vocals of Adrian Fitipaldes left the group due to vocal health issues (announced via their Facebook page). This June saw the release of the bands new single Obelisk, as a preview to the upcoming album Node that is to be released on the 24th of July.

Fitipaldes had input on writing the 2014 single Rot, so this time round it will be interesting to see what Bridge brings to the table when it comes to writing. The bands previous album Singularity reached number 3 in Australia on release, it was praised for its strong song structure and massive sound giving Node a big bar to reach to.

The intro throws this strong energy at you with it being lower down in the volume range, but still being able to push this huge space of sound at you, vocals overlay for the build up into a verse that seems to be a somewhat new direction for them but very much rooted in a prog style. The song continues into a mix of almost djent and not quiet metal core riffs, prog seems to be overlaying genre here and it ties in the track very well.

Overall this is a great track and the band seems to be going towards a slightly different approach compared to that of Singularity, but this is in no way a bad thing – it is a refreshing sound and could be a new start to the already well established band.

Rating: 7/10

Node is set for release on July 24th via UNFD