After making some waves with their debut release from The Faceless, the second release from the label is a smartly similar release of forward thinking, synth laced, techy, progressive, death metal/deathcore. Throw in some Between The Buried and Me styled arpeggio flourishes, and you get a pretty solid, if all too short release.
Clocking in at a little over 20 minutes, The New Reign is more of an EP than a full album but crams enough interesting moments in its short time, to be worthwhile. Though synths are hardly new in the genre with the likes of Winds of Plague, Arsonists Get All The Girls and The Devil Wears Prada using them, Chicago’s Born of Osiris use them sparingly and creatively within the framework of the songs and allow them to give a little melody and atmosphere to the choppy and rumbling stylings.
As a whole there isn’t much you haven’t heard in modern American metal; full clean production highlighting crumbling, angular riffage, lots of stern grooves, death metal vocals and the occasional blast beat or melodic lead. However, it’s all done very well and with a skill set that’s commendable, showing a lot of promise for the future. Throw in those aforementioned arpeggios (i.e opener “Rosencrance”, “Empires Erased”) and the well placed moments of synth flocked atmosphere (closer “The Takeover” despite its horrid Korn styled opening riff, “Open Arms to Damnation”) and the lurching Meshuggah styled backbone has a little something different to offer.
Still though, paying full price for what is essentially an 8 song EP is a bit off putting, but probably worth it for fans of the genre.
