Mélancolia is on the move again.
Two years after their debut album, the band led by Alex Hill (vocals), Joshua Taafe (guitar, ex-Aversions Crown), Billy Morris (guitar), Mason Page (drums, Alter Idem, ex-Splatterpuss) and Toby Thomas (bass/vocals) return to present their second mischief, random.access.misery, with the complicity of Nuclear Blast.
We start with All_Is_Rust, a first composition with a rather heavy atmosphere that eventually reveals thick, dissonant riffs coupled with visceral vocal parts before calming down. Vocals remain just as virulent, but the instrumental is quite changeable, passing from floating moments to raw jerks without warning before the final explosive break that leads to icanseethroughtheholesinmyhands where the oppression resumes immediately. The ‘90s Nu Metal influences are immediately perceptible, but they are naturally integrated into the waves of violence that join the hypnotic parts of Picking Scabs, where the band offers a distinctly more hazy approach while remaining focused on modern sounds. The riffs are fairly simple, but the surrounding noises make them catchy, as on the mysterious boiler.room, which once again anchors the band in Trap coupled with over-saturated guitars, then it’s in the company of Hunter Young (Graveview) that we discover Lithia, the next composition. One hellish vocal part follows another, but unfortunately the track flies by, and is followed by the ominous groove of RoseBloomWrist, who effortlessly crushes us with his double kick while the vocalist goes wild. Break and moshpart mingle before a rather airy finale that eventually gives birth to SPIT! where they reunite with Christopher Mackertich (Dregg) who helps them break our necks, adding his virulent vocal parts to the heaviness of the track. This is followed by the eponymous random.access.misery, a veritable steamroller that quickly gets everyone on board with its assertive savagery before slowing down, even offering a soothing passage between two slices of rage, before Cold Now… takes its place, daring to propose a rather majestic sound. The contrast between the drums and the guitars is striking, but both eventually give way to violence before letting the keyboards guide us to …Colder Still, where the palpable sadness offers us soaring moments between two eruptions, creating a rather heavy atmosphere in which we feel all the distress of the situation, which will eventually evaporate.
Although very chaotic, nothing is left to chance on Mélancolia: every riff, every noise, every scream is present to fuel the oppression and violence of random.access.misery. The album is as raw as crafted.
90/100
