When you run the risk of being simply known as “the band that Will Ramos of Lorna Shore used to sing for”, you’d better deliver on your album that you recorded after Ramos’s departure  …. And Boy to A Wake in Providence respond and let the blackened deathcore world know they are NOT simply going to be remembered that way.

In fairness, A Wake In Providence was a pretty darn good band while Ramos was still in the fray, and their 2019 album, The Blvck Sun || The Blood Moon, is pretty damn good (and as I stated in my review on the latest Lorna Shore album, Ramos was nothing special on that album). So after Ramos’ departure and that whole thing, A Wake in Providence found a  replacement in Adam Mercer from Entombed in the Abyss, buckled down, and knocked out a fucking killer album of their own that gives Pain Remains a run for its money.

Eternity is REALLY fucking good. it may not come with the hype of Pain Remains, but I tell you what, it puts A Wake In Providence in the elite echelon of blackened/symphonic deathcore with Lorna Shore, Worm Shepherd, Shadow of Intent, and Sin Deliverance ( just my humble opinion of course). It does not come with the full orchestral bombast of some of their peers, but brilliantly infuses epic, rousing choral, and orchestral arrangements into a more progressive, ambitious form of deathcore.

Mercer delivers an excellent performance with ample bellows and screams and he’s aided by guitarist and orchestral composer D’Andre Tyre who delivers an element some of their peers don’t have;  emotive clean vocals and they are well placed and well done unlike Ben Duerr’s semi sung attempts on Shadow of Intent‘s most recent effort.

Musically, while Lorna Shore, is about a continual over-the-top bludgeoning, AWIP has a little more control and variety, and the symphonic elements are more black metal, cinematic and tempered as opposed to Lorna Shore‘s pure bombast. Just listen to the opener ” An Odyssey Through The River (Overture)” and its follow up “The Horror ov The Old Gods” or the personal favorites “We Are Eternity”, and  “The Book ov The Eldritch (Second Movement)”, where the symphonic elements build and ebb with dramatic, movie score like pacing. The choirs in particular are superbly used throughout the album to build up a subtle sense of dread and a more tense theatrical atmosphere for example “Siamo Legati Dal Terrore” and the start of “The Book ov The Eldritch (Second Movement)”.

Of course, the album has plenty of genre tenets… and by that I mean there are plenty of hefty breakdowns and blast beats, with a killer production but it’s wrapped up in really well-done, varied songwriting and structures, that honestly, Lorna Shore could learn a little from at times. And not to overdo the Lorna Shore mentions and comparisons, Eternity has an epic, damn good “Pain Remains, I, II, III”- like trilogy of its own in “The Hunt ov The Wraith (First Movement)”, “The Book ov The Eldritch (Second Movement)” and “The Court ov The Trinity (Final Movement)”…. so there’s that.

A Wake in Providence and Lorna Shore are going to be inextricably tied together for a while, but I have to hand it to A Wake in Providence, Unique Leader, and Adam Mercer, as Eternity is a brilliant album that stands alone regardless of those ties and comes really close to unseating Pain Remains as the year’s top effort in the blackened/symphonic deathcore genre.

[Visit the band's website]

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