ALBUM REVIEW: Undying Light – Fallujah

Once upon a time in 2011, California’s FALLUJAH began to establish themselves as the new arbiters of atmospheric metal. Their seminal album The Harvest Wombs offered a cacophony of traditional death metal spliced with heavily pronounced flavours of post-metal and tech, and this multifarious, wall-of-sound effect soon became the band’s trademark. Eight years on, the outfit stand proud behind a small but accomplished back-catalogue of material, and are poised once again to add to the collection.

Undying Light represents a new era for FALLUJAH, however. Gone are the guttural, baritonal exertions of vocalist Alex Hoffman, following his abrupt exit from the band last year. Certainly a blip, but brand new front-man Antonio Palermo now stands front and centre, bringing to the table an arsenal of raspy fry-screams that diametrically oppose Hoffman‘s approach. Moreover, the band weren’t just left in search of a new vocalist; they also needed a new album artist. Hoffman‘s services included a compelling and emotive brand of design, and so up stepped Nick Keller, a digital artist whose glitzy portfolio features the likes of THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER and concept design for Peter Jackson‘s The Hobbit. In other words, the visual motif that spans the band’s discography thus far has concluded, and this is a neat microcosm of pastures new for FALLUJAH. The sonic content itself follows suit in many ways. Whilst the familiar effect of atmospheric grandiosity still remains at times, the songs generally feel as though they were crafted with more of an ‘in your face’ mentality in mind. The record is comprised of what could quite conceivably be 10 singles, and this is something that intrinsically carries both pros and cons.

Eyes Like The Sun provides perhaps the most pertinent example of this. Much like the majority of the songs, it falls around the four minute mark and presents something of a journey in its own right, exhibiting a well-rounded pallet of the band’s strengths without having to function as a jigsaw-piece for the record. With the pace always waxing and waning, Palermo‘s devilish cries dominate the mix with passion and power, deftly juxtaposing the low, grumbling instrumental in the backdrop. A solid structure is established and maintained, but the creative flare never lacks. Guitarist and mastermind Scott Carstairs delivers his best work of the album, offering a fully fledged display of the serene, atmospheric guitar work that has become his signature style, carefully balancing this with more traditional, pacey soloing. Drummer Andrew Baird also manages to pull out all the stops, giving a truly characteristic display of his technically astute professionalism with complex but complimentary fills and blast-beats appearing in abundance.

Overall, Eyes Like The Sun, like much of Undying Light‘s material, feels accomplished and complete. Songs such second single Dopamine and opening track Glass House operate in rather a similar manner: the writing feels mature and tasteful, familiar flashes of brilliance are routinely pronounced throughout and for the most part they are firmly book-ended with introductions and conclusions. However, this approach leaves something to be desired. Many of Undying Light‘s songs come across as too independent, and that they perhaps don’t represent something more. The obvious comparison to draw here is the band’s second full-length record The Flesh Prevails which, in a nutshell, could have been released as a standalone, 40-minute song, and the format would have made total sense.

Though dwelling on the past is never a good idea for anyone, especially a music fan, it’s all too easy for Undying Light to feel slightly lacklustre in this regard. FALLUJAH made their name for writing strings of songs that meander, flow and bleed into one another seamlessly, and that level of delicacy seems to be missing this time around. Perhaps acting as mitigation is the ‘new era’ motif surrounding this release – after all, bands change with the times. However, the purported talisman of this new era, Palermo, represents another problem in his own right. Though his brand of high-mid-range, IN FLAMES-esq. style is devastatingly effective at times, it quickly becomes rather stale. His voice, while powerful, lacks range and variation, and it become all too easy to confuse this with the songs themselves.

This said, the burden of expectation is heavy for bands like FALLUJAH, and it remains a fact that the most remarkable artists are often the ones subject to the harshest criticism. On the whole, Undying Light still represents a quality attempt from a supremely talented band, and this shines through on numerous occasions. As expected, deftness and quality prevails relentlessly throughout, tempered only by being much less expansive than what we’ve come to expect, with the soundscape effect now appearing to be a thing of the past. And of course, a new chapter for any band cannot necessarily be expected to take full effect immediately – the odds suggest the FALLUJAH will ease into their new style more and more as time progresses, and presumably bounce back to top form in the process.

Rating: 7/10

Undying Light is set for release March 15th via Nuclear Blast Records. 

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