The Tale Untold – Counterculture
Release Date: 15th November 2024
Label: Self Released
Spotify / Apple Music
Genre: Modern Metal, Hard Rock, Extreme Metal, Post-Hardcore, Industrial, EDM, Djent, Hip Hop, Metalcore.
FFO: Absolutely Everything Metal Related.
Review By: Mark Waight
Formed in Nebraska, USA in 2016 The Tale Untold are about to unleash their hard-hitting debut album Counterculture on the world after announcing their arrival previously by releasing two well received earlier EP’s (Only Temporary in 2019 and the aptly named Chapter II in 2023).
The Tale Untold are not the sort of band who can be shoehorned into one set music genre or another, as these guys simply refuse to be contained or confined within those kinds of tight parameters. In Counterculture, they thankfully seem to have honed the knack to be able to criss-cross those invisible boundaries at will, and long may it last.
The Tale Untold is Eliss Hall (vocals), Jon Frost (guitar), Jack Larson (guitar, vocals), Ashlee Boyce (drums) and Cole Buckley (bass).
After a short Intro we are away with Show Me, a brutal mix of black and grey that immediately grabs your attention and pulls you straight in kicking and screaming all the way.
There are occasions when we would all like to Burn It Down and this primal and guttural track does exactly that in a bleak world where male and female brutal vocals collide head on. A little lighter on the palette Dream (Featuring Jordan Rush) is modern metal at its very best in a truly genre-bending fusion with widespread appeal.
The slow riff laden Paper cuts very deep as it scrolls it way through to the depths of your mind in this doomy journey of despair and darkness whereas The Craving is a little quicker and a little softer on the ears without ever straying too far into the light.
Scream fest Make Believe once again pitches those brutal vocals against one another in a fight to the death and maybe a trip to hell where we meet the Devils Doom (The Tale Untold), an instrumental track forged in the inferno out of the souls of men.
We all know someone with a God Complex whose probably more suited to spending an eternity in the fiery pit with his arch nemesis than sitting on a cloud playing a harp, well this song is dedicated to them before we reach a very short and sharp All Time High.
Final track and ode to my all-time favourite beverage, Coffee (Reimagined) is a superior blend of the very best that The Tale Untold have to offer and will leave you buzzing and wide awake. Where is that repeat button? Let’s do this again!
Counterculture is a totally banging album that exceeds all expectations and is well worthy of checking out when it drops – just remember to crank that volume right up! The Tale Untold are absolutely on fire and I, for one, can’t wait to hear more from them! Highly recommended.
(4.5 / 5)
