Allegaeon – Damnum
Release Date: 25th February 2022
Label: Metal Blade Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Technical Death Metal
FFO: Wretched, Katatonia, Haken, First Fragment, Caligula’s Horse.
Review By: Eric Wilt
Allegaeon has never released the same album twice, but Damnum, with its inclusion of clean singing, feels like the biggest step forward they have made from one album to the next. I’m guessing the idea to incorporate clean singing on Damnum came from the popularity of the covers they recorded of Rush’s “Subdivisions” and “Animate” and Yes’s “Roundabout.” It turns out Riley McShane has been hiding one hell of a singing voice for all these years. At once powerful and controlled, McShane’s clean vocals enhance the melodicism that has always been the backbone of Allegaeon’s sound.
One thing that never changes is Allegaeon’s extreme technicality and ability to write catchy death metal songs, which are both present in abundance on Damnum. In addition to McShane, Allegaeon is comprised of guitarists Greg Burgess and Michael Stancel, bassist Brandon Michael, and new drummer Jeff Saltzman. The addition of Saltzman to the fold has breathed new life into the band creatively and skill wise. According to McShane, “pairing him with our bass player…we finally have a rhythm section that can keep up with the level of musicality and proficiency the guitars have always brought to the table.”
As far as the songs are concerned, Allegaeon digs even deeper into the melodicism that has always been so important to their sound. Songs like “Bastards of the Earth,” “Of Beasts and Worms,” and “Into Embers” perfectly display the juxtaposition of technicality and heaviness with the beauty and melodicism of the cleanly sung parts that elevate their sound to new levels. “To Carry My Grief Through Torpor and Silence” is a classic Allegaeon banger, complete with flamenco guitars and proggy bass solo. Continuing with the progressive theme, two of the longer compositions, “Called Home” and “The Dopamine Void Pt. 1 and 2,” are overflowing with emotion that is captured in the lyrics as well as the music which is times soft and lush and other times heavy and aggressive, bringing to mind prog metal bands like Katatonia and Haken.
In the end, Damnum is the album Allegaeon needed to make. Instead of continuing to merely build on the previous albums the way they have in the past, Damnum is a giant leap forward in melodicism and composition, and while there is more than enough heaviness to please old fans, Allegaeon is sure to win new fans with this, their most accessible, if not their best, album to date.
(4.5 / 5)
