ALBUM REVIEW: Triumphs – Foretoken
The best metal music is the type that seamless navigates throughout multiple genres. FORETOKEN are a band that fully understand this. Since the project’s inception in the minds of multi-instrumentalist Steve Redmond and vocalist/lyricist Dan Cooley, it has always sought to expand its musical horizons through frosty black metal soundscapes and molten hot death metal. The gentlemen successfully laid the foundations of their musical journey with their debut effort Ruin and now three years later they have returned to pick up where they left off with their sophomore effort Triumphs.
From the very opening of Revenant Of Valor the band give an insight into the kind of dynamics on display here. The cinematic, orchestral introduction is quickly swept aside by a maelstrom of insanely technical black metal drumming (thanks to the superb hired hand Hannes Grossman behind the kit) and frantic, well-crafted guitar riffs – the latter of which are delivered with surgical precision and intertwine expertly with the stringed instruments to create a textured, theatrical blackened death metal masterpiece.
The opening riff from Demon Queller owes more to the Swedish death metal luminaries such as AT THE GATES and IN FLAMES than to the more blackened influences on the band’s sound. However, it takes little time for the band to introduce the aforementioned elements, with the kind of drumming that wouldn’t be out of place a symphonic black metal album, only with tastefully written melodic guitars soaring over the top of them. It is in this realm that the band really flourish and display their finest moments. Another example of this is The Labors, with Cooley’s shrill, barking vocals bouncing off of the grandiose canvas that has been laid beneath it by Redmond and Grossman. The solo in the final third of the song shows a superb understanding of both melody and a technical prowess that trades off, with a plethora of different runs, sounds as if it belongs on a peak MEGADETH album, which from a guitarist’s standpoint can never be considered a bad thing.
His Riastrad is one of the highlights of the album. The melodic guitar runs contrast perfectly against the pulverising drums. The pace never drops at any moment, giving the listener no time to come up for air as the band navigate their way through a cavalcade of impossibly complex drum beats and wrist-burning tremolo riffs. FORETOKEN have managed to find the perfect blend of visceral blackened metal and melodeath here, creating a song that is as accessible as it is crushingly heavy and deliciously evil all without leaning too far in any direction.
Towards the back end of the album we find the track A Tyrant Rises As Titans Fall. The song starts with a single echoed clean guitar before being joined by ethereal strings, creating an epic backdrop before the rest of the instrumental comes in and lifts you out of your boots with a swift uppercut. The rapid double bass from Grossman is linked in perfectly to the heavy muted guitar riffs in a way that is almost surgical in its precision, with Dooley giving one of his most emphatic vocal displays of the entire release.
The fact that FORETOKEN are creating music of this magnitude at this early stage of their career is nothing short of breath-taking. The members are locked in perfectly with each other and both have a level of understanding of what each song requires which is a testament to the high level of songwriting talent that they possess. The band laid down some pretty considerable foundations with Ruin, but with Triumphs they have taken things to an entirely new level. This is an album that deserves your attention, and you owe it to yourself to give it.
Rating: 9/10
Triumphs is set for release on March 17th via Prosthetic Records.
Like FORETOKEN on Facebook.