Apex, by Unleash the Archers. Or Fuck Yeah, Canada!
This album
made 2017 for me. As soon as "Awakening" kicked off I knew I was in for
something truly great. A quick research online will show you this is a
primarily power metal album, with influences from other subgenres weaved
in, the standouts being melodic death and NWOBHM. Even if these genres
don't truly do it for you, I'd still check it out. The hooks
sink deep with great choruses (try not to headbang on 10K x 1), melodies
(on Apex, Call Me Immortal, False Walls, Cleanse and pretty much
everywhere else)... and the tone.
It's the tone that really separates this one from other 2017 greats, such as Archspire's excellent Relentless Mutation (come the fuck on Canada). So UtA went for a concept album, telling a story of an Immortal sent on a quest by an evil Matriarch. The songs as chapters create the perfect mood to the action they are describing. They work fantastically as single pieces, but also fitting harmoniously in a cohesive whole, where the story swells and subsides in tension in the exact places it needs to. No rearranging of the track order required, as each song carries the right emotion into the next.
I saw them live, and all the performance chops are there. Brittney soars, Grant and Andy shred, Scott hits the skins just as they do on the album! Nikko is pretty chill but shining with class when the moment called for it. Unfortunately he has since left the band. They all delivered on point, in time, in pitch, and on what was the final stretch of a really long European tour. Really talented, fun unit.
Yeah, Apex is a work where everything came together fantastically. I hear it and I just get happy.
Do eet.
It's the tone that really separates this one from other 2017 greats, such as Archspire's excellent Relentless Mutation (come the fuck on Canada). So UtA went for a concept album, telling a story of an Immortal sent on a quest by an evil Matriarch. The songs as chapters create the perfect mood to the action they are describing. They work fantastically as single pieces, but also fitting harmoniously in a cohesive whole, where the story swells and subsides in tension in the exact places it needs to. No rearranging of the track order required, as each song carries the right emotion into the next.
I saw them live, and all the performance chops are there. Brittney soars, Grant and Andy shred, Scott hits the skins just as they do on the album! Nikko is pretty chill but shining with class when the moment called for it. Unfortunately he has since left the band. They all delivered on point, in time, in pitch, and on what was the final stretch of a really long European tour. Really talented, fun unit.
Yeah, Apex is a work where everything came together fantastically. I hear it and I just get happy.
Do eet.