ALBUM REVIEW: Resurgence – Future Palace

Internal battles and despair turning into strength is the beating heart of FUTURE PALACE‘s new record. Once again, they continue to evolve and explore their sound. With new styles, evocative imagery and those signature vocals, Resurgence has it all.

From start to finish, this album bursts with a beautiful oceanic theme. If there is one thing this band knows how to do, it’s create an immersive, atmospheric album. In their 2024 album Distortion, there is a sense of claustrophobia and a lack of control. Whereas in contrast, Resurgence feels vast and unknown. Although many bands can write evocative albums, FUTURE PALACE take things one step further. Their music weaves gritty screams with sweet melodic bursts, emulating a full IMAX experience. Despite it being almost entirely a sonic experience.

Deep Blue opens this album. The cadence of the intro feels like being thrown into an ocean. All the while, there is an instrumental texture that seems to mimic rising air bubbles. The whole album includes varying techniques that maintain aquatic-like sounds, complementing the overall theme. By track two, Resurge, it is at full-power FUTURE PALACE. Released as a single, its raw rasping screams exude determination and rebellion. There is a new confidence heard on this song, daring a listener not yet to be pulled under. Its corresponding video also adds beautiful visuals to an already atmospheric song, and aids the storytelling. Guitarist Manuel Kohlert even highlights this track when discussing new sonic journeys, admitting it, “felt very nu-metal. – Call it another experiment since we haven’t done that kind of music yet”.

However, a risk is never out of character for this band, so nu-metal may not be too outlandish an endeavour for this band. Further on in this album, it incorporates the mysticism of the sea and, by extension, the human experience. Further down the track list, on Nightfall, vocals embody two sides of a siren. Overlapping a voice of mesmerising and otherworldly lightness with screams full of anger and frustration. Layering them over music conveying the same message.

Their artistry continues with Tidal Waves, as it brings the album to its close. The song focuses more on the gentleness in Maria Lessing‘s vocals. Maintaining its theme, it trades crashing breakdowns for soft melodies carried by Lessing‘s vocal talents. It is a full-bodied, anthemic ballad, and a fitting wind down. That is before Cyclone adds one more chaotic push to provide a powerful closer, mirroring the unpredictability of its title. As a band, they seem to effortlessly blend the heaviness with the soft. Crashing drums contrast with gentle vocals, all the while neither overshadows the other.

Resurgence is a bewitching balance of light and dark. The accompanying visuals for this album only deepen the world FUTURE PALACE has created in the sonic realm.

Rating: 8/10

Resurgence is set for release on July 31st via Century Media Records. 

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