Arrival of Autumn is still around.
Formed in Canada in 2011, the band consisting of Jamison Friesen (vocals), Ryan Sorensen (guitar, Windy City Slaughter), Brendan Anderson (guitar), Ty Fox (drums), and Liam Frith (bass, Loyalist, Becomes Astral, live for Flub) announced in 2023 Kingdom Undone, their third album, through Nuclear Blast.
The album starts with Scars, a first track which immediately places solid and sometimes groovy riffs in an efficient and jerky mix. Clean vocals follow screams on the chorus, and we notice some modern tones in the background before the final moshpart guides us to Your Fiction, a composition using more or less the same elements and adding some dark leads to create a rather heavy atmosphere. Blast gives a motivating rhythmic pattern a few extra hints of energy, but the band sometimes lets intensity drop before Trust takes its place, letting more complex patterns build on a raw and catchy basis. Heady leads fit quite well into the mix, just like on Ghosts which lets the musicians go back to the style’s basics, creating a real split between the raging verses and the soaring chorus. We will have the aggressive approach again with Hell Comes Home, a track which also places some more dissonant elements, completing the raw and regular sound, then via One More Day, which sometimes borrows from Nu Metal to develop its solid and continuous rhythmic, not leaving us a single moment to catch our breath before this disturbing break with epic sounds. The atmosphere will ignite again before being soothed by Liminal, a rather short track letting electronic sounds temporize the few explosions of fury throwing us on Burn and its haunting melody. The rhythmic will quickly accelerate but it will remain somehow disturbing, leaving however an important place to leads as well as to clean vocals, then Who The Masters Serve will reconnect with the heavy aggressiveness with which the band likes to play while offering disturbing sounds on the chorus. The end of the album approaches with Bury Me, a rather dark composition letting the band place simpler sounds before letting impressive riffs strike, then Hallowed comes to close it with one of the richest and most surprising tracks when it comes to vocals, keeping the jerky touch on the rhythmic side.
With Kingdom Undone, Arrival of Autumn imposes a raw and uncompromising Metalcore, letting energetic and jerky rhythmic meet powerful vocals, worked leads and motivating patterns. A good album for the style enthusiasts.
85/100