Fallujah is an extreme progressive metal band from San Francisco founded in 2007 by guitarist and primary songwriter Scott Carstairs. Today, the band is mostly associated with the tech death metal scene even thought early on they had a deathcore sound. After the successful 2016 album Dreamless, singer Alex Hofmann announced his departure and on January, 2019 the band revealed longtime friend Anthony Palermo as their new frontman and unveiled their forth studio album Undying Light.
Undying Light is a raw, direct, no-filler and emotional album. Ten songs in 45 minutes, no intros or instrumental/transition tracks. Opener "Glass House" kicks things off with a mid-tempo fade-in riff, but soon turns into an aggressive song. The new singer Palermo screams his lungs out. The vocal approach works for me better than previously. It is more high pitched hardcore than deep death metal growls. Like in the opening track, Andrew Baird relentless drumming throughout the record is impressive. Sometimes a whole song sounds like a drum fill e.g. "Ultraviolet". At moments, there's a certain Post-Metal vibe in this record, specially in tracks like "Dopamine" or "Distant and Cold". "The Ocean Above" jazzy interlude is placed perfectly at the middle of the record and gives some breathing room to an otherwise avalanche of raw energy.
Fallujah 2019 sounds raw, emotionally aggressive and direct. The vocals are a change from the previous records and that can alienate some older fans. The atmospheric moments or clean vocals are kept to a minimum. For some, like me, those changes are a receipt for success, but I can see how it won't be for all (and it never is really). It's always difficult to follow a album like Dreamless whihc pleased so many fans. But I agree with the evolution that Carstairs and band are going for. There are only two points that bothered me. First, the song writing could be more impactful and some songs more memorable (that could improve with repeated spins). Secondly, the lack of guitar riffs is troublesome and sometimes they sound alike, for example it's difficult to distinguish the intro of "The Ocean Above" and "Departure". At the end of the day, Undying Light is a good progressive album that won me over after I failed to get into their music previously.
DR: 5
Genre: Progressive Death Metal
Released by Nuclear Blast on March 15th, 2019
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