Letallis ends a ten-year absence.
After two albums in 2008 and 2014, the American band now made up of Jake Calonius (guitar/vocals, Iscariot), Marcus Hedwig (guitar, The Hudson Horror) and Alex Cohen (drums, Contrarian, live for Malignancy, ex-Imperial Triumphant, ex-Pyrexia…) returns with A Thousand And One Nights – Chapter 1, their new EP.
It gently begins with Merchant and its oriental tones, which gradually invade the atmosphere before the arrival of airy vocal parts, but the intensity grows slowly before finally exploding. Saturation and howling now haunt the track, which leads into Palace, an intriguing interlude that introduces A Thousand and One Nights, a track where melodies become more virulent to accompany a complex rhythmic pattern influenced by both Melodic Death and Progressive Metal. These misty mysterious harmonies remain in the background to contrast with violence, before the band turns to heaviness for Thief, making the track quite catchy while retaining some sharp leads. The percussive break tempers violence before it strikes again with more fervor, then the band returns to its haunting quietude on The Vizier And The Sage, at least on the first part of the long last track, as it will flare up and become much more aggressive, and even the break won’t manage to contain the rage for good.
A Thousand And One Nights – Chapter 1 is the first in a trilogy of Prog/Melodic Death sounds with oriental influences that Letallis is already leading with passion. The tracks are relatively well-constructed, and I can’t wait to hear the rest of the adventure.
75/100