The wait is finally over! I know myself, alongside of a lot of readers/fans of Overtone, have been eagerly anticipating this album since the moment it was announced, so to finally be able to sit back and review it is a bit of a surreal moment. Especially after being so accepted into the bands community and getting to chat to the duo just last week (interview pending, sorry!). The singles I’ve heard have been excellent, and they already have a track record of putting out some awesome stuff. So, a sophomore album a decade in the making, this is the band new LessDMV album. Fuck, I’m excited!
The eerie, epic intro track, ‘| E |’ leads perfectly into the heavy, massive start of ‘Hysteria’. That scream and the power metal riffing and drumming is awesome, immediately leaving me not knowing what to expect. Julian’s clean vocals soon come in for the verse, an awesome multi-track going on, a subtle high, softer vocal adding an amazing level to it all. The low growled vocals in the pre are awesome too, showing off his absolutely incredible range early on, and then the catchy chorus comes in perfectly afterwards. It’s all on a similar level which I actually love, as it has a sense of urgency that an opening track should have. The bridge riff gives off big early BFMV vibes in all the best ways, and then we get a melodeath heavy screamed part that blows me away even more! This song is wild and a great taster of a bit of everything the pair do so well, which is exactly what you want from a first track. And, it’s an amazing song in its own right, and one that instantly makes our playlist!
‘Straight from Hell’ picks up right where the opener leaves off, yet has a bit more of that BMTH Sempiternal-era synth vibe to it. I like that it drops down for the verses though, it being just Julian’s incredible voice backed by keys and synths. It adds another layer of variety to the album already, but still feels so very LDMV. It also builds perfectly and beautifully into a massive, arena-filling chorus. It’s still heavy but feels pretty ballad-like, which I love! And, having said that, we still get a heavy breakdown in the middle with an incredible scream in it. It’s another awesome song that fits perfectly with the prior one, and is another one that’s a must check out!
The heaviness returns with THAT riff to open ‘Gone’, but I love that it also still has the keys behind it, feeling like it combines elements of both the tracks before it. It all has a layer of evil and eeriness to it, from said keys to Julian’s low vocal delivery in the verses. And it once again builds perfectly into a surprisingly beautiful, uplifting chorus, though it also fits the track seemingly perfectly. It gives off ever so slight Corey Taylor vibes for the first time on the album, like one of Slipknot’s more modern, slower songs. I cannot get over how awesome the chorus is, it made to be played to huge festival crowds around the world! It’s menacing throughout, outside of that chorus, and I can’t not praise how incredible it is to write two sections that fit when they really shouldn’t. Yet another excellent song!
‘The One’ is the first acoustic ballad of the album. It’s another stunningly beautiful track, and a fatactically emotional love song. The distortion builds perfectly into the absolutely massive chorus, but that doesn’t at all take away from the emotion or beauty, it arguably enhancing it even more. It’s a chorus that’s going to be stuck in my head for days to come too, it’s so good! And honestly, the solo gave me goosebumps. It fit so well and carried the emotion on perfectly. This is an absolutely incredible ballad and an absolutely MASSIVE album highlight. I’mma stop gushing over it so my fangirling doesn’t get to the extreme but yeah, certainly another one for our Spotify!
After another brief interlude track we get more synth-metal awesomeness in ‘Ghost’. It’s very gothy, feeling like a slightly heavier HIM, complete with a couple of awesome screams! It’s a very similar feel to ‘The Light’ after it, though the latter is a touch slower and even more gothic. Both are excellent tracks and I love that it’s the kind of sound that the album settles comfortably into; a bassline by which it goes heavier or lighter. And neither truly feel like album tracks, either, as both could easily be singles in their own right!
‘Requiem’ opens on a Marching drumbeat, with Julian’s insane lows coming in, accompanied by some slight piano. It once again has an eerie feel to it, in the best way. I love the simpleness of the track, too. The first chorus feels epic while not really adding in any more parts than the verse. Heck, it isn’t until the second chorus that everything finally explodes in, sounding massive and so grandiose. It feels like a perfect (yet far too late) time to praise the incredible mix throughout this album; everything shines through perfectly and fits together excellently. This song really lets Julian flex his insane vocal range, going from powerful lows to stunning highs and everything between. And, you guessed it, it’s another beautiful song!
It’s wild to me that we’re this far into the album before we reach the first single on it, ‘The Sanctuary’. It’s a song that I’ve managed to sit with for six months now, and it’s just as incredible now as it was the first time I heard it. I love the driving synth in the intro, giving it an almost 80s vibe to it. And it has arguably the best chorus on the whole release, so damn catchy! It’s a goth-rock radio hit if I’ve ever heard one, that’s for sure! It’s hard to talk about it without repeating what I’ve been saying for months, but just know it’s an excellent song and definitely another worth checking out!
‘| A |’ gives way to the excellent recent single, ‘In the Dark’. It’s another song that I have spoken about a lot, even doing a reaction video for it. So, if you want to hear me gush all over this track, I’d recommend checking that out, as I can’t gush over the track any more concisely than there!
‘Insanity’ is another electronic-based track, even having a trap beat behind it. I have to admit, it isn’t really my sort of thing. However, at least they do it better than Sleep Token! And those couple of low notes Julian hits… DAMN. It’s an impressive song none-the-less, and is yet again something completely different on an album that is never the same or boring. Heck, the fact that I’ve only clumped two songs together into the same paragraph in this whole review is utterly wild, and a true testament to the variety of this album!
The final single on the album, ‘To Believe’, is somehow one that I hadn’t checked out until this review. However, it’s another incredible, beautiful track, and a damn good choice for single! It feels like a blend between ‘The Sanctuary’ and ‘The One’ in that it’s synth-driven but still has a ballad feel to it. It’s uplifting as hell and is another strong contender for best chorus. Heck, that high harmony in there is amazing, again adding so much depth to the already massive sounding vocals. The whole song is another incredible highlight on an album honestly packed full of them.
The final track of the album (excluding the closing ‘|R|’), ‘Summer Rain’, is an amazing way to close things out. The multi-layered, harmonised vocals from the offset are incredible, making it sound massive even though it’s just those and drums for the most part. The Linkin Park-like guitar riffing helps build things up through the choruses and bridges, but the song stays lower throughout, not quite exploding into that high gear. I actually like it a lot, as it has a sombre feel to it and still feels epic, fitting the style and sounds of the rest of the album rather perfectly. It’s a simple yet incredibly effective song that builds into a truly incredible soundscape by the end. I tend to prefer a big explosion, go out with a bang and all that, but this felt so incredibly fitting to everything else that I loved it. It’s not a song I’d necessarily listen to on its own often, but in the context of the album it’s perfect. And it rolls amazingly into the extended, epic closing interlude!
Overall: WOW. I’ve been a fan of Julian and LessDMV’s work for a while, but I wasn’t expecting to like it quite this much! Especially when most of it was brand new to me; some of my favourite tracks by them being standalone singles instead of making them album tracks too. The whole thing flows perfectly together, and is packed full of excellent song after excellent song. And as I’ve said before, they’re all so different that it keeps it constantly interesting, and let the pair really stretch out their creative wings. I’d urge absolutely anyone to check this out immediately, and it’s definitely going to be high up on our albums of the year list come December!
The Score: 10/10