Alluvial is back with a new EP.
Created in the USA, the band started out in Death Metal, but has since diversified. For the release of Death Is but a Door, Wes Hauch (guitar, Glass Casket, ex-The Faceless, ex-Black Crown Initiate), Tim Walker (bass), Kevin Muller (vocals, The Merciless Concept, ex-Suffocation live) and Zach Dean (drums) continue to move forward with Nuclear Blast.
Bog Dweller immediately explodes in our faces with jerky riffs quickly joined by massive screams. Heaviness and spikes of complexity perfectly combine, letting the band pour out their groovy riffs interspersed with dissonance, which will gradually slow down the crushing final to lead us to Fogbelt and its screaming samples. The track is slower but just as devastating, offering intense explosions that contrast with the throbbing base, then pure energy resurfaces on Area Code, which doesn’t hesitate to multiply moshparts and other palm-mutes to create a stirring sound. A few slower passages are to be expected, but rage dominates this complex yet powerful track, while Death Is But A Door, the final track, gets off to a gentle start, combining soothing melodies, clean vocals and its characteristic oppressive heaviness, partly due to the Prog patterns, but also to the saturated vocals that make their way through this moving cloud.
Alluvial‘s second album was promising, and the band confirms with Death Is but a Door both its stylistic evolution and its quality. Prog roots are still present, but it’s with massive Deathcore influences that they strike.
90/100