Allegaeon: A Collective Grief
Grief is something we have all experienced in the last two years. The pandemic and its seemingly-never ending turmoil of social restrictions, the loss of loved ones, economic hardships, and now, the turmoil of warfare in Eastern Europe; two years into the revival of the ‘roaring twenties’ and we’ve been through so much. For Colorado-based shredders ALLEGAEON, the embodiment of grief lies at the heart of Damnum; their sixth full-length record and a far lyrical departure of their science-heavy back catalogue. For founding guitarist Greg Burgess, he explains to Distorted Sound how this came to light.
“I think it’s understandable that we’d do something a little different when the world has kind of been turned upside down. I know we’re super proud of it because it’s very honest,” he explains. “We didn’t do the science thing because it just seemed a little tone deaf with everything going on. And the band suffered a lot of death in our kind of immediate group. So with that head frame I think the album makes a lot of sense. Whether that was cathartic in the end or not, I don’t know yet. I Damnum is going to be one of those things where it’s hard for me to judge at this point. Ask me in two years when the next record comes out, and I’ll be like ‘okay, I got I got a firm grasp on it’. It’s super different for us so it is a very hard thing to really judge objectively.”
Whilst it’s hard to draw conclusions on whether Greg and co. experienced a cathartic release penning their anguish into their new offering, what’s definitely clear is that the finished product stands as a work of art, built from a collective drive and unity from the quintet. Largely, this is due to the fact that the record was built with every member contributing to the writing process; a career first for ALLEGAEON. And for Greg, it was a completely new experience, one that did not come without its challenges.
“For 15 years, that’s not how I’ve operated within the context of ALLEGAEON,” he states. “And this is something that the guys really wanted to do. It’s a democracy so the majority won the vote, and that’s how the album was written, it was by majority vote. A lot of things that got brought in got changed, which would never have happened before. As the old dog learning new tricks I think I learned a lot. The guys are very happy with this kind of arrangement and we’re just learning as people and ultimately, I think the record came out great. It never would have happened if there wasn’t 100% faith with everybody involved.”
Although lyrically, Damnum is a much more grounded and relatable release from the band this time round, on a musical front their new offering is very much a natural evolution of the ALLEGAEON template. The guitars still shred and swirl in glorious twin melodies, the solos are jaw-dropping and vocalist Riley McShane (now on his third album since joining in 2015) pushes the sheer range of his vocal ability to much wider territories. And as Greg states, it’s all about maximising the talents within their collective repertoire. “Why would you have such a great singer and then not utilise them? We finally got him to go like ‘hey buddy, you can sing it’s okay’.” He ponders with a chuckle. “Especially here in the US, in the death metal world people don’t really care for clean singing too much. But I don’t care. It’s what I like you know? I really like the kind of like Gothenburg melodeath kind of vibe, like SOILWORK or IN FLAMES, and that’s kind of always been what I wanted to do. You have to look at the long picture a couple years down the road instead of right now.”
Damnum arrives at a time where the world is awakening after the long hibernation. With COVID-19 seemingly loosening its vicegrip and the world begins to shift back to a sense of normality, the goal now for ALLEGAEON is to recapture the momentum established by 2019’s Apoptosis. However, despite the picture looking more positive, there are still many hurdles along the way. “There are just so many unknowns. It’s hard, it is the impossible question to ask,” Greg says when we propose the question of when international touring will return in full swing. “But I will say things are getting pretty back to normal in the States so I can see it. But it’s just super expensive. And then it is like, ‘oh you’re on the road and then you catch it [COVID-19]’. I guess the tour then gets cancelled and you have to quarantine and get a hotel for two weeks before you can fly back home. And then before you know it you’re bankrupt because you couldn’t go do your job. The world is it’s such a weird place, it’s hard to even imagine! We haven’t played a show since 2019. So it’s just a different world. I haven’t even got my hopes up about anything. I’m just like ‘cool, we got a record done, you know?’ I guess right now it’s just stretching the creative muscles as much as possible!”
Damnum is out now via Metal Blade Records.
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