EP REVIEW: Border World – Volcandra

Kentucky black metallers VOLCANDRA are an incredibly promising band that are quickly making their mark within the US’ already sterling extreme metal scene. With two singles, one of which is a great cover of OPETH‘s Demon of the Fall, and a brilliant debut album, Into the Azure, under their belts, it’s clear from even a cursory listen to this band’s music that they aren’t your average black metal act. Borrowing subtle flourishes and techniques from influences as wide ranging as prog and power metal, they’ve managed to develop a glorious yet fierce sound that makes their music every bit as engrossing as it is intense. Their new EP, Border World, once again sees them flirt with these soaring and fantastical musical and lyrical elements, resulting in a short but undoubtedly stunning record.

Tallon IV, with its incredibly slick and melodic guitar sound, does a great job of blending the more technical, progressive musical elements within the music with the more driven and aggressive black metal ones. The intricate drums, razor sharp, focused riffs and dense, ferocious vocals all make for a catchy but utterly visceral take on black metal that gives everything a very modern but nonetheless punishing sound that immediately grabs the listener’s attention.

The opener bleeds seamlessly into Resonance Cascade, a blistering juggernaut that makes excellent use of tight, thrash-inflected guitars with bleak discordance and acidic howls, turning this into a far darker and more emotive track than its predecessor. This has a more traditional extreme metal sound, but manages to maintain the polish of the production and the adventurous musicianship, making for a fresh sounding and imaginative take on a tried and tested formula.

Colossi lurches suddenly from the grandiose, power metal-esque pomp of the previous offering’s closing moments and leans heavily into a coarser piece of black metal. Complete with ethereal, melody-tinged guitars, it brings in some cleaner, almost acoustic sections, machine gun precise drums and soaring, banshee-like shrieks that make this an interesting affair that is simultaneously acerbic and punchy. It balances the band’s lighter, memorable musicality with their more rabid black and death metal influences.

Guardian, with its bombastic guitars, cavernous drum sound and powerful rhythmic undercurrent, is a huge piece of music that once again navigates the tightrope between the slicker, more accessible side of the band’s sound and the more caustic, monstrous one, with fantastic results. It’s an exceptionally catchy yet thoroughly harsh track that blends together the band’s myriad influences and showcases their songwriting talent for an epic and wide-ranging conclusion to a very impressive EP.

This EP may only run at just shy of 20 minutes, but VOLCANDRA have managed to fill that short span of time with enough ideas, interesting twists and inspired technical flourishes that it leaves a significant impact on the listener. The tight and melodic hooks, coupled with the polished production and varied approach to songwriting, incorporating a variety of influences and styles into their music, makes for an incredibly lean and immersive record that has very little in the way of filler. Border World is a record with a broad appeal, having many accessible and slick components alongside some dark and visceral ones, and it’s hard not to get fully drawn into it once it’s heard.

Rating: 9/10

Border World is out now via Prosthetic Records.

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