Author: Primož Novak
Artist: After The Burial
Label: Sumerian Records
Release: year_month
Length: 41:24
Rating: 4/5
American outfit After The Burial is one of the first bands on Sumerian Records. With the release of their debut Forging A Future Self, the label staked out its identity as a home for more technical bands. ATB showed plenty of originality within deathcore itself, which they approached in a seriously technical way. Elements of so-called djent showed up, though it wasn’t popular yet back then, and the term itself wasn’t even a thing. Over the years, and now with their fourth album, After The Burial have become a key name in technical deathcore, alongside Born Of Osiris and Veil Of Maya. In other words, bands that mix djent and deathcore.
After The Burial were first pegged as a cross between Meshuggah and Unearth. Despite the obvious deathcore elements, the band leaned hard on complex, syncopated breakdowns, while the riffs themselves were packed with melody, and the same goes for the soloing. And somehow they still stick to that recipe today. Rareform is still one of their best-received albums, the one that really put them on the map. There was nothing wrong with the third album In Dreams, but it wasn’t as convincing as Rareform. And now, with Wolves Within, the band is back after more than three years to make up for the weaker reception of In Dreams. Did they pull it off?
First came live footage of A Wolf Amongst Ravens, which looked very promising, with a pattern that in some spots recalled Bleed by Meshuggah. Above all, the band made it clear that this time they’ve tuned their eight-string guitars even lower. With the second song they revealed, Of Fearful Man, they showed they haven’t forgotten about melody, paired with their typical punch and capped off with a breakdown. After The Burial came back the way they should. But the criticism came too. The sound of the record is definitely not the best. Maybe the label pushed for it, or maybe it’s just the result of too much experimenting. The mix is undeniably strange. The complaints were aimed at the mix itself, saying the bass guitar sounds higher than the guitars. The sheer power of the sound is also pretty restrained. The drums sound too artificial too, or, as is popular these days, like they were »drawn in« with Toontrack. The guitarists’ own production is probably to blame here, so the band would have been better off going to a more capable producer.
Still, credit is due for how polished certain songs are. Fine, the opener Anti-Pattern, with its repetitive drums and not-so-inventive guitars, doesn’t promise much, but on Pennyweight, Disconnect, Nine Summers and Neo Seoul you can clearly hear the band’s creative horizons opening up. The work of the guitar duo Trent Hafdahl and Justin Lowe deserves special praise. There’s no shortage of complex syncopated riffs, which people do accuse of being played on a single string. But on the other hand, Hafdahl breaks up any monotony with all sorts of melodies and outstanding soloing. The outro solo in Disconnect is a prime example. The punchiness occasionally eases off with a bit of suspense, as in Nine Summer, after which Hafdahl once again treats himself to some virtuoso soloing.
The drums and bass aren’t a weak spot, but the focus with After The Burial has always been on the guitars, even though the band is very rhythmically varied. Of course, today’s djent bands can’t do without weaving in electronics, which fits perfectly with the heavy riffs. Neo Seoul is a great example. At times the vocals can be grating, with screams that cut through your eardrums like some black metal band. Luckily, Anthony Notarmaso mostly leans on his growling, more hardcore-flavored delivery.
Wolves Within closes out almost apocalyptically with Wolves Amongst Ravens, which stresses a dark atmosphere built by the keyboards, while the guitars are tuned the lowest on the whole record. Despite a pretty repetitive pattern, the song comes across as incredibly convincing as a whole, thanks to that atmosphere and how tightly the riffs lock together.
After The Burial didn’t repeat In Dreams. You could say they built on it, or you could simply say Wolves Within is a mix of In Dream and Rareform. Despite the criticism aimed at this album, the metalcore, deathcore and djent scenes can agree on one thing: After The Burial are still one of a kind. They’re not monotonous like many of today’s djent bands, who drag their dreamy passages out forever as if they wanted longer song lengths, only some of the melodies are syrupy, the vocals are aggressive, and the guitars are built on power. And yes, the breakdowns are of course here, but they’re original and complex, they just don’t stand out as strongly as on Rareform. With Wolves Within, the listener gets a solid 41 minutes of aggression, complexity and melody. The band hasn’t run out of ideas yet, so we can look forward to more interesting stuff in the future.
Line-up
Anthony Notarmaso – vocals
Trent Hafdahl – guitar
Justin Lowe – guitar, programming
Lerichard “Lee” Foral – bass
Dan Carle – drums
Production
Justin Lowe, Trent Hafdahl
Tracklist
- Anti-pattern
- Of Fearful Men
- Pennyweight
- Disconnect
- Nine Summers
- Virga
- Neo Seoul
- Parise
- A Wolf Amongst Ravens
