So, we’re being a little cheeky with this one. While we’d usually try to feature each EP on its own, our current release schedule unfortunately wouldn’t let that happen with all three of these bands. But, between Valhalla Awaits, Before the Dawn and No Worth of Man; we couldn’t just feature one or two of these awesome bands and leave out the others. So, much like our New Music Monday series, I wanted to feature all of them in one place, so you get plenty of great music all at once!
Valhalla Awaits: Perdition
The UK underground supergroup return this Friday with their first EP in a year and a half. The former members of The Blackout, Revoker, Buffalo Summer and Bastard Sons have really captured lightening in a bottle so far with their style and consistent output, and continue their awesome run of form with this release. It’s hard rock with a definite heavy edge, every member bring their own style in together and it merging rather perfectly. There’s a lot of Revoker in the riffing, but the vocals could sit more in the NWOCR end of the spectrum. Then you have the incredible ‘Staring at the Gun’ which is heavily inspired by Alice in Chains in all the best ways.
Honestly, every track has a different sound and feel to it, leading to a fantastically varied, easy listen. And all five tracks are great in their own ways. There isn’t a bad song in the bunch, and any of them could have been picked as the single. It’s very hard to pick highlight tracks, so you’ll just have to go and listen to it from cover-to-cover instead! You certainly won’t be disappointed! I was gutted when Revoker and The Blackout called it a day (and am also gutted while writing this review to find out Buffalo Summer are also done/on break?), but the fact that we get music like this out of those sort of situations makes up for it a fair bit! I’m gonna have to see this band live soon, as this may be my favourite release from them. 9/10
Before the Dawn: Archaic Flame
The melodeath band returned with a vengeance after a decades absence last year with their Stormbringers album. As you can see from our review, I loved it! They look to carry on their momentum with the release of this EP, but will it score higher than the 9/10 it got before?
Sadly, I wouldn’t say it’s quite on the same level. It’s certainly good, at least the two new ones are, but neither of them quite caught my attention or blew my mind like some of their album did. Having said that, their Bryan Adams cover was great and surprisingly fit their style well, and they sound good live with their new version of ‘Dying Sun’. I also feel like the hype for a new EP for it to only consist of two actually new songs is just a tiny bit of a cop-out. It would have been easier to do the title song and ‘Chaos Sequence’ as singles alongside the cover, no? But still, the two aforementioned tracks are good, modern Before the Dawn songs! 7.5/10
No Worth of Man: What’s Your Damage?
The Hampshirean (that’s a word, right?) metal band are finally back with their brand new EP, the much anticipated follow-up to The Middle Farm Experiment. The proggy, death metal style the band produce is amazing, a real blend of their Dimmu Borgir, Lamb of God and Dream Theater influences. They’re very much like a heavier Periphery or TesseracT, and I love it. I need more than the 18-minutes I got from this EP, just as much as I need to see this live.
The three guys are INSANELY talented musicians and songwriters. And that is on display perfectly across the four tracks on this EP. It’s an epic release that could have easily been a full album and I’d have loved it just as much. ‘Mondo Decay’ may be one of my favourite tracks in this style, period. There isn’t a bad track on it, and if you’re into the heavy stuff, you’ll love this! 8/10