ALBUM REVIEW: Never Return – SVNEATR
In just over a decade since their initial formation, Canada’s SVNEATR have managed to become one of the country’s fastest rising black metal acts. Standing out from the already impressive Canadian black metal scene with their incredibly tight and melody-driven sound, which borrows heavily from both heavy and speed metal for added influence, the band’s sound is simultaneously timeless yet fresh, with their second album, 2021’s Chinook, pushing the Vancouver four-piece’s intricate sound to even loftier, more grandiose heights and establishing them as a band with a very bright future. Their latest album, Never Return, builds on its predecessor’s sound significantly, whilst introducing some far harder and even progressive elements, resulting in not only one of their best works so far, but arguably one of their most creatively ambitious as well.
Mechanical Wolves kicks things off in epic fashion, with slick guitars and muscular rhythms setting a powerful tone right off the bat. Veering between monolithic, slower sections and grating, cacophonous ones with ease, it’s a track that brilliantly captures the band’s propensity for punchy musicality and harsh aggression, with only the abrasive snarl of the vocals providing any consistency as its sinister edge carves through the lighter moments whilst complementing the fiercer ones. Never Return, with its haunting, cleaner guitar sound, leans prominently into melodic black metal, with dancing leads, frenetic drums and caustic vocals all creating a tight sound informed by a generous dose of classic heavy metal riffing. It tempers the darkness at the music’s heart with a catchy side that grabs the listener’s attention and retains it throughout, finishing on a far livelier note than it began on.
…And When Comes The Storm, with its inclusion of hazy acoustic guitars and spacey flourishes, proves to be a more atmospheric song than the first two, with ethereal, chanted vocals adding to the grandiosity on offer. It’s still got razor sharp hooks and visceral twists similar to the preceding songs, but it begins to shift towards a subtly progressive, murky sound that stands apart from the polished majesty of what came before it, boasting an experimental feel that completely changes the dynamic of the album without straying too far from what has worked well until now.
Omen, with its ominous, sludgy bass and chunkier guitar sound, is a thicker iteration of the band’s central formula, utilising full chords and spartan melodies to achieve a domineering sound, whilst carrying forward the sonorous clean vocals and discordant guitars to create a sound that is bleaker than anything on the record’s first half. Blackout possesses a dense, reverb-drenched sound and almost funereal pace that lends it the air of brooding gothic rock, before lurching suddenly into what is arguably the album’s most belligerent effort, with blistering guitars, punishing percussion and feral howls pushing the sound closer to second wave black metal. A few leaner interludes provide the only break from the unerring ferocity before the track slides back into a heady, bombastic sound, having covered a huge amount of ground musically.
Reaper Of The Universe, a doom-laden, slow-burning affair that features some incredibly emotive guitar lines, initially feels as though it’s going to head down a blackened doom route before altering to become a fast and rabid piece of black metal that captures some of the rabid style and imaginative musicianship of its predecessor, whilst remaining completely committed to the core sound, taking the varied approaches that have been present throughout this album and blending them together into one expansive, compelling brew that caps the album off fantastically, showcasing SVNEATR‘s uncanny knack for immersive and adventurous songwriting.
For those who were introduced to SVNEATR by Chinook, this album has a lot of that same sharp and biting blackened metal sound that pairs soaring hooks with angular rhythms, trimming away what little fat that side of the band’s sound had with ease and replacing it with some subtle experimental touches, with the album’s second half especially seeing the band shift gradually away from their core sound and transforming it into something that is much more atmospheric and engrossing than anything they have released to date. Never Return, above all else, is the sound of a band finally shedding some of the more overt touches of their musical influences and beginning to craft a style that is distinctly their own, and if this ends up being explored in greater depth on future albums they could very well been on the cusp of producing their magnum opus.
Rating: 8/10
Never Return is out now via Prosthetic Records.
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