ALBUM REVIEW: Cascadence – Arcaeon

Remember the 90s? Boybands ruled the earth, Gladiators were on the TV and football almost came home. Don’t worry this is going somewhere. During the early years of that decade, there was a boom in the video game industry which saw the Sega Mega Drive and The OG Game Boy invade millions of homes around the globe. The debut album from ARCAEON harnesses the spirit of these consoles and their 8/16-bit sounds and blends them with modern-day progressive technical metal to great effect.

The album begins with the instrumental Infernum Demergeris, which Blade Runner fans will feel right at home with hearing. The soft tones and eerie synths lead way into their first single Origin of Dreams, which hits with it’s dancing riffs and harsh vocals until it gives way to powerful lead vocals that soar over the instruments aiming for the stratosphere. The bounce of the guitar work will be sure to get heads bobbing and bodies grooving. Elements of ARCHITECTS and NORTHLANE are present here and fans of those bands will feel the warmth of familiarity. It’s a solid choice for a single with its catchy chorus line looking to get lodged into your brain for the oncoming days.

Ghost In The Machine follows on and pushes the bar even higher. Its spine-tingling, crushing heaviness is married eloquently with its beauty and features some of the most impressive vocal work on the record while the synths pirouette behind the stellar guitar work. Ezekial’s Wheel is another stand out which blends elements of TESSERACT and PERIPHERY. The more laid-back sections give bass player Eifion Sweet a chance to shine. His work throughout the album is stirring and acts as a major factor in the majestic groove that the album possesses. Check out the intro to track Beyond The Spires_Beneath The Canopy for validation.

The synthwave elements of the band are perfectly weaved between the other instruments or are used as effective bridges between certain tracks. Zenith I: The Reflection is a perfect example of this and the video game synths lead into Zenith II: Arcadia masterfully and add a certain spark to the record. Heretic opens with what sounds like the menu screen from Pokemon Blue before attacking with metalcore righteousness. It’s two-stepping infectiousness is wonderful and it would be a track that needs to be heard on the big stage one day. The drum work from Joe Farrell never stops being awe-inspiring throughout Cascadence and his partnership with Eifion is exemplary. The album comes to a heroic close with An Endless Sky and once again shows off the masterful musicianship of the band. Their song-writing ability is already top drawer very early into their careers with ARCAEON.

One of the biggest selling points of Cascadence, aside from the tracks themselves, is the attention to detail that they have infused into every aspect of its release and content. Before even focusing on the music, it should be noted that alongside the album, a Game Boy game is being released to accompany it. The game allegedly spent seven months being created by bass player Eifion Sweet and features the band members themselves being the lead characters in a story that runs alongside the premise of the album. Each level of the game corresponds to a colour that features on the album artwork which is a loosely based colour concept spawned from Blade Runner. The effort that has gone into this record is nothing short of astonishing. Whether it’ll actually be popular or not will remain to be seen but the ideas are truly one of a kind.

To write off ARCAEON as a PERIPHERY knock-off would be doing them an incredible disservice and would also be wildly inaccurate. Sure, the vocals of Stuart Sarre are obviously influenced by Spencer Sotelo but there’s also hints of Lukas Magyar from VEIL OF MAYA as well as his own style thrown in. While Spencer is known for belting out ridiculous highs, sometimes with greater effect than others, Stuart tends to know his range limits (which is still incredibly broad) but it tends to work out for the best and it never seems like he’s pushing his vocals too far to reach that glass-shattering note.

Cascadence builds upon, but is also a step-up from their 2018 EP Balance, with the introduction of their new vocalist being a wise addition to the already impressive line-up. Cascadence mixes technical prowess with heart-wrenching emotion and confirms there’s plenty of bite behind the bark. It’s an incredible achievement for a debut full-length and cements ARCAEON to be a band to watch in 2021 and beyond.  

Rating: 9/10

Cascadence is out now via self-release. 

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