ALBUM REVIEW: Helix – Amaranthe

They say two’s company and three’s a crowd, but try telling that to AMARANTHE. The Swedes are now a decade into their career and have not wavered from their triple vocalist threat at all, giving them a unique edge that has seen them hold their own impressively in a music genre that is becoming over-saturated and often uninspiring. Despite a change of vocalist in the last year from founding member Jake Lundberg to Nils Molin, the show must definitely go on and the next chapter is unleashed in October 2018 with Helix, their fifth studio album released via Spinefarm Records.

A big pitfall of symphonic metal is its tendency to be too flimsy; the reason why NIGHTWISH are miles ahead of anyone else is because they’ve added a significant amount of grit and substance behind the keyboards and expansive tones. AMARANTHE might need another album to fully balance this, but Helix is not only a massive step in the right direction but also has the potential to be the best of the bunch released in 2018. Sure, it’s still a chaotic blend of death metal and pop but guitarist Olof Mörck has ensured the heaviness takes more precedence this time around and the result is dynamite. Infectious choruses in the likes of lead single 365 and Inferno are still prevalent but they are married with stompy riffs and the guttural sounds of Henrik Wilhlemsson to great effect; you can also add opening track The Score and the ridiculously catchy Countdown in there too.

AMARANTHE haven’t been afraid to try out a couple of things here and there as well, harbouring largely positive results. GG6, for example, has a huge metalcore-esque riff which changes the pace of the record nicely and follow up track Breakthrough Starshot throws in a breakdown for good measure. Even the title track’s Euro pop synth, one more commonly associated with football compilation videos on YouTube, has been moulded into a style more befitting of the band repertoire and gives a fresher feel than before. Whisper it quietly as well, but they may have also invented a new sub-genre with Iconic, the combination of soaring vocals and downtrodden guitars giving off a vibe one can only describe as ‘power metalcore’.

Whilst it would be very unfair to say that none of AMARANTHE‘s previous releases have had potential, Helix sparkles with it more than the others. There’s plenty on here to digest and enjoy, retaining everything that makes symphonic metal so enjoyed but offering new outlets to suggest that there is far more to this band than originally thought. If they can harness things further, they could explode next time around.

Rating: 8/10

Helix is set for release October 19th via Spinefarm Records. 

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