Arcane Existence – Colossus
Release Date: 20th August 2021
Label: Self Released
Bandcamp
Genre: Symphonic Death Metal/Black Metal, Extreme Metal.
FFO: Born Of Osiris, Fleshgod Apocalypse, Dark Fortress.
Review By: Ross Bowie
Arcane Existence was originally created by guitarist and bassist Kiera Pietrangelo as a solo project, but after the critical praise of 2017’s debut album The Dark Curse became a full band. Arcane Existence are back with their unique take on symphonic extreme metal.
The album is consists of two strong identities: the fast paced, tech metal influenced black metal and the sombre and often beautiful symphonic passages. The album’s artwork provided by Nele Diel demonstrates the two opposing sides to their sounds and is a perfect encapsulation of the sound of Colossus.
The opening track Mythic shows the intense mixture of brooding extreme metal and luscious piano lines running along the top of the riffs. This is a hard balance to get right consistently across thirteen tracks, but Arcane Existence find that sweet spot between the two battling worlds. The incredible piano and synth work by Becca Mcabe adds so much texture and ambience to the world the music is creating but not only does it create an emotive response, but it makes the riffs sound even heavier. The orchestration can jump between background strings straight into harp passages with a medieval twist which is best executed on the albums stand out track Transmutation.
While the music works in tandem to find new ways to assault your ear drums the vocals don’t have the same fluidity. There are a few occasions where the two completely different vocal styles just don’t mix and the leap between the two doesn’t stick the landing. The brutal and guttural screams littered throughout are downright savage and the clean and often operatic vocals are extremely impressive and uplifting but the execution of bringing them together is a trick that Arcane Existence will no doubt pull off better next time around.
Colossus is a great achievement for a band who are working and writing together for the first time. Not many albums can simultaneously sound like both Nightwish and Born Of Osiris, but Arcane Existence make it happen. The band do a great job of building a dark yet beautiful world and to get the most out of this record you need to be ready to step into that with them.
(4 / 5)
