Pre-Human Vaults – Allegiance Divine
Release Date: 10th June 2022
Label: Discouraged Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Death Metal, Thrash Metal.
FFO: The Haunted, Dew-Scented, The Crown.
Review By: Rick Farley
Swedish/American supergroup Pre-Human Vaults offer up a thrashing dose of death metal on their debut EP Allegiance Divine, set to release on Discouraged Records. Originally conceived in 2014, the band for various reasons didn’t really take off until late 2019. Consisting of founder Ronnie Björnström, Patrik Gardberg, Michael Gomez, Peter Nordin and Christian Älvestam. Ex and current bands represented by these heavyweights are Scar Symmetry, Meshuggah, and Miseration just to name a few. The EP offers up four songs of raging, technical and grooving, up-tempo death metal. On the Lyrical side of things, the EP tackles the cowardly wrongdoings of political and religious terrorism. Such as the 2011 Norway attacks and Oklahoma City Bombings.
To anyone not in the know, Christian Älvestam may very well be the best overall growler/singer in the business. Known for his stint with Scar Symmetry, Solution .45 and Miseration, the guy’s a fucking legend. With no clean singing on Allegiance Divine, his growls are thick, guttural, and brutal. The variance in his voice is so natural, that even his harsh vocals are just as devastating, screamed or monstrously guttural. Vocally, there are a few hooks and catchy choruses to do your best possessed demon impression with. Seriously, good luck with that. Christian however sounds completely unchallenged, bellowing out these tunes with ease and massive brutal range. A true vocal god amongst men.
Pre-Human Vaults musically, is a quasi-thrash meets death hybrid that brings to mind bands like The Crown. Head splitting ferocity and aggression in the form of crunchy metallic riffs and intense machine gun style drumming. Precise riffs with loads of hard-hitting groove ready to smash in your skull. Little bits of synth melodies bring suspense, enhancing the jagged edged guitars and swirling hooks. Stylistically there’s nothing terribly new here, but the band deliver the goods of just solid kickass death metal thrashiness. Allegiance Divine is heavy as balls and will level you, even with only four songs. Full of shreddy yet tasty leads, chugging headbanging riffs and moshable tempos, the EP will leave you begging for more punishment. The crushing bass is audible with a warm tone that mostly gives the guitar extra weight by driving the songs with riff matching low end. The drums flirt with high intensity grooves to chest caving blast beats. The production, which was done by guitarist and founder Ronnie Björnström sounds clean and polished enough to be modern, but also has enough edgy grit to keep things a little dirty.
Allegiance Divine unfortunately is only an EP, but brings some serious upside just in sheer quality. The musicians involved are all top-notch and deliver individual performances worthy of high praise. In lesser hands this would be an average run-of-the-mill release that would get lost in the shuffle and be forgotten, but instead this becomes a precursor to something bigger and better to come. I will surely be keeping my ear to the ground awaiting a full-length release. Amazing growls and primo thrashing groovy death metal continuously punching your face in, what’s not to love!
(3.5 / 5)
