ALBUM REVIEW: Impermanent – Aversed

Comprised of members of many other outfits from across the metal sphere, Massachusetts metallers AVERSED have spent the last few years focusing on their other projects but also taking their time to craft their debut album Impermanent. Calling on melodic death metal with influences from as broad a range as prog, symphonic metal and gothic tendencies, their debut is a near hour-long ride through various metal genres all tied together under their take on melodic death metal. 

Tackling their own struggles with anxiety and depression set against a backdrop of environmental collapse, the band state their intention is to blend anger at the decay of the world both human and natural, with elements of beauty to symbolise the chance for a rebirth into a better world. AVERSED intentionally took two years to craft the album, agonising over every minute detail to ensure it lived up to their lofty expectations of themselves.

Opening with a solitary guitar before a tremolo-picked variant of the riff picks up, Natsukashi kicks into high gear almost immediately with Haydee Irizarry’s acerbic screams and soaring melodic singing that’s reminiscent of early THE AGONIST and ARCH ENEMY. It’s an unrelenting ride featuring plenty of blastbeats and virtuosic lead work, as well as a neck-snapping riff work courtesy of guitarists Sungwoo Jeong and Alden Marchand. 

The rhythm section of Peter Albert de Reyna (bass) and Jeff Saltzman (drums) are the beating heart – pun somewhat intended – of the album in many ways. Saltzman’s driving rhythms often feature near-metronome accurate double bass work and is equally capable of locking in steady, grinding grooves as well as slower moments interspersed with rolling fills such as the opening moments of Laboratory, which also features squealing harmonics that wouldn’t be out of place in modern technical death metal. 

The aforementioned Laboratory is one of the more intriguing tracks, with its polyrhythms and lashings of modern death metal groove, as well as a latter section that’s much more gothic and minimalist before moving back into a dissonant, double-bass driven fury. Its title suits the more experimental nature of the song extremely well and it’s an early highlight to the album. The title track that follows takes a leaf out of the symphonic playbook with keys providing an expansive backdrop to a blackened whirlwind of guitars and blastbeats that’s reminiscent of CRADLE OF FILTH in their more straightforward moments. 

While the band clearly have technical chops and strong songwriting abilities, the major issue is one of length. At almost an hour in length, despite the variety both between and within songs, it does sag somewhat around the midpoint. It does pick up again afterward with the excellent Malaise that has a barnstormer of an opening section, all squealing solos and off-kilter rhythm and closer Nightshade might begin more sedately but it’s the calm before the storm. 

Where AVERSED excel is in crafting layered, melodic metal with strong progressive tendencies that doesn’t give up its secrets on first listen. Instead, Impermanent rewards repeat listens to appreciate the finer details that have gone into crafting the record. Despite its slightly overlong runtime, this is a vicious, consistently great debut from yet another promising extreme metal band and it’ll be exciting to see where the next few years take them.

Rating: 8/10

Impermanent is set for release March 19th via self-release. 

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