I have no excuse why it has taken me to review the debut album from Baltimore’s Greylotus. I got nothing. It’s even sadder considering, I listen to it a lot, and it’s going to be a clear-cut album of the year contender for me, so let’s get to it.

Basically, Greylotus’s Dawnfall is if you took all of the Artisan Era’s excellent current roster ( ie Inferi, Aethereus, The Devils of Loudun, Warforged, Apogean, Inanimate Existence) and put them in a blender or they all accidentally got in the teleportation machine from The Fly;  Technical, shreddy, melodic, progressive, keyboard filled modern death metal. throw in members who have served in or helped out the likes of Equipoise, Cognitive, and Wormhole, you get the musicianship to back it all up.

Now, I know all that tech influence jumbled together may not sound appealing or memorable, but where Dawnfall stands out is its technicality and musicianship is wrapped around tight, varied, and memorable songwriting. I’d also actually throw Alleageaon in a reference as well, as they have balanced out outstanding skill with killer songwriting to make a comparable album to Damnum, but with a little more technical flare and progressive hues. It’s not all a total noodle fest though as they can also bring the heavy too as heard on the likes of “Shadow Archetype”, “Hoarfrost” and “Syzygy”.

The keyboards are more subtle and more proggy (ie “Capgras Delusion”, ” Shadow Archetype”, “Syzygy”) than full-on symphonic or bombastic and work as a tasteful backdrop rather than say the front and center style used by The Devils of Loudun. And vocalist Lee Mintz has the standard and adequate array of growls, shrieks, and occasional spoken word or clean croon, though Riley McShane he is not.

Every damn song and every note in Dawnfall is absolutely stunning. It’s hard to pick standouts amid the 44-minute 9-song album, as for me, it’s a listen-to from start to finish kind of album. But gun to my head, “Chiaroscuro”, the aforementioned “Capgras Delusion” and the closing duo of “Dawnfall” and “Azure Rain”, the album’s two longest tracks, get my nod for ‘standout’ tracks but that’s like picking the best cut of steak at a 5 star steakhouse.

“Azure Rain” closes the album with a more epic, symphonic tone to start and is the album’s most ‘restrained’ track, but that’s not saying much as it is still a Kaleidoscopic vortex, but it has more clean vocals than the other songs, and a couple more introspective moments to end a brilliant album brilliantly.

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