The Fifth Alliance is back from a long road.
After a period of silence, the Dutch band comprising Matthijs (guitar), Niels (guitar), Puck Wildschut (bass, Brave New Hell, ex-Sisters of Suffocation), Peter Scheffer (drums, Brave New Hell), and their new vocalist Natalya “Thalos Sacritas” Thelen (Waldseelen, ex-Yantras) unveils its fourth album, Stenahoria, in collaboration with Tartarus Records and Ardua Music.
Phoenix roars in our ears from the very first seconds, pairing furious rhythms with banshee-like screams while weaving a palpable, abrasive sense of oppression, later fueled by hypnotic leads that join the onslaught as the vocalist lets loose. There are, however, much softer moments where ethereal tones blend with touches of unsettling clean vocals, but the band doesn’t take long to reignite the fire, and the sound intensifies on its own, mixing the heaviest and most aggressive elements with calmer ones as it races toward Benandanti, which is much softer at first listen. It’s hard, however, not to feel the darkness emanating from the dissonant riffs, which gradually gain ground and eventually summon back the visceral screams while the distortion suffocates us before propelling us toward the heart-wrenching final, where the vocalist chants “rise for freedom” with all her soul before the silence leaves us contemplating the void. It is quickly replaced by Fool on the Hill, the next track, where the sound returns to captivate our minds with waves of expertly orchestrated heaviness that draw on both a weighty melancholy and a heady groove before succumbing, in turn, to an extreme, penetrating darkness. Although a few softer touches are on the menu, the track remains deeply intense and doesn’t shy away from alternating between all its influences, shifting from precision-engineered post-black metal to much grittier sludge, as heard on Battle of Barnet, a track that starts off fairly minimalist but quickly returns to its aggressive tendencies while the vocalist attempts to ease the tension with her plaintive vocals. The flow moves gently between the two worlds, eventually letting the darkness win the tug-of-war and carry us toward Jakob, the final track that clearly displays its menacing sounds, first with a few trippy touches, then with massive screams before one of the most unsettling breaks, and then it’s once again the unstoppable eruption of violence with almost corrosive sounds that sweeps us up in its mad charge toward nothingness.
While The Fifth Alliance’s influences are many, they are all linked by this visceral intensity and oppressive heaviness that drives the musicians on Stenahoria, an album that is both mysterious and fascinating and will quickly find its audience, admittedly niche, but passionate.
90/100
