ALBUM REVIEW: Come Alive Dying – Tenside
TENSIDE have been entertaining fans all over the world since 2005. The band are known for their unique take on metal, blending metalcore, thrash, and industrial metal, but it took them a while to earn great success, despite touring relentlessly and playing everywhere from small clubs to festival stages. Whilst they gained critical acclaim for their 2013 album Nova and 2017’s Convergence, things went up a notch with the release of 2020’s Glamour & Gloom, which earned over ten million global streams as audiences across the world listened to it online. Now, they’re back with their new album Come Alive Dying.
The opening title track starts off with a heavy instrumental breakdown that sounds like it has been ripped out of the industrial metal rulebook, but the vocals are something completely different; the verses lure you in with Daniel Kuhlemann‘s hypnotic singing voice before the chorus kicks in and spits in your face with some insanely heavy screams which put the cap on a triumphant opener that sets the stage for a truly unique album.
TENSIDE are clever; they open themselves up to experimenting with various subgenres, but they also do it in a way that feels cohesive. Whether it is the mostly-sung Shadow To Shine with its extremely heavy instruments, or the industrial-heavy Pitch & Gold, each song is a planet that you visit in a vast universe that the band have created.
Of course, the album isn’t perfect. Darkness To Blight goes through the same motions as most metalcore songs, losing that TENSIDE touch along the way, while Impending Doom has an electronic synth that gnaws its way into your brain as it overwhelms the song by being way louder than everything else.
However, there are also shining moments throughout the rest of the album, such as the screamed vocals in Aim For Paradise, or the synths in Deadweight that blend seamlessly into the metal sound. Even though there are some weaker songs, the production holds the album together fantastically, and although some of the songs on the latter half of the record don’t stand out as much, such as the paint-by-numbers Transcend, others like the synth-metal track Dust Of The Bereaved make up for it by bringing back that TENSIDE twist.
Overall, Come Alive Dying is a fun, unique and interesting album. TENSIDE have played by their own rules on this album – for the most part. Whilst some songs fall into the stereotypical metalcore sound and some of the synths that are used overwhelm the songs, the rest of the album is fantastic. Even though some of the songs are not as good as others it still manages to be a very cohesive experience, and by exploring multiple subgenres the band are able expand their sound and make sure that each song is different, perhaps even shedding some light on some less popular metal subgenres in the process. If you’re after a fresh take on metal music, then this album is for you.
Rating: 8/10
Come Alive Dying is out now via Ivorytower Records.
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