Damnum

With their succession of mighty technical death metal albums, Allegaeon have continued to expand and improve their sound. Each subsequent release has seen the band evolve and mature while keeping the excitement present throughout their past discography. “Damnum” (which is Latin for “Loss”) is the logical next step that I believe many were anticipating and the title alone suggests a departure from their usual scientific/ dystopic themes in exchange for more personal subjects. These are translated through the abstract lyrics, cover art and of course the intensity of the music. On this record, Allegaeon are taking their blend of brutality, melody and extreme technical musicianship to the next level allowing no time to get distracted or lost in your thoughts. This album will engulf and assault you with every type of musical prowess the band can display.

Despite the constant intensity, “Damnum” stands out from most other death metal albums of similar calibre thanks to its complex but melodic guitar riffs which are handled by the virtuosity of Greg Burgess and Michael Stancel. Mesmerising guitar leads are present throughout the whole album and allow the listener to remain fully engaged in the music's flow. These leads provide the main melodies as they are superimposed to the harsh vocals that belt out the lyrics. Meanwhile the drums and bass lay the foundations for the power that “Damnum” demonstrates. The bass (played by Brandon Michael) is as dynamic as the guitars, the drumming of most recent member Jeff Saltzman is fast, technical but always precise and well structured so that the listener can easily latch onto the grooves and still be astonished by the musicianship. One of the big novelties of this record is the extended use of vocalist Riley McShane's clean singing which is a rarity in technical death metal but fits surprisingly well whenever this band incorporate it. While these were only used as a brief experimentation on their last album, in “Damnum” they're used more prominently even when the music is blasting at full power like in the awesome hook of the song “Of Beasts And Worms” or in the chorus of closing track “Only Loss” which is perhaps the most intense moment of clean singing.

The first five tracks are the kind of absolute bangers you'd expect from Allegaeon at this stage of their evolution but something feels particularly special about this specific group of opening songs. They embody a massive charge of musical vehemence laced with powerful rhythms, catchy guitar melodies and a few unexpected surprises here and there to serve such a buffet to your eardrums. I must highlight “To Carry My Grief Through Torpor And Silence” and “Vermin” which are exemplary tech death songs for you to release your energy to while admiring the intricate music. The prior is split by a wonderful acoustic guitar passage superimposed to a bass solo before the music builds into the spectacular guitar solo. That's just one of the many details that make Allegaeon's musical foundations shine even brighter. Things get more experimental but also more dramatic with “Called Home” and “The Dopamine Void”, the intensity breaks up to give way to songs that start slower and allow the band to show their progressive rock influences. Eventually these two songs evolve into their own madness with the second part of “The Dopamine Void” exploding into a full frenzy as Riley sings at his fastest pace.

The lyrics are obviously about personal issues and experiences but the specific subject matters are never too obvious since the slightly abstract writing leaves room for interpretation. The only exception is “Called Home” because the blunt lyrics of that song reveal the story behind it which I won't describe in this review in case there are sensitive people reading this. Despite this being the slowest song it has a huge build-up and remains the most spine-chilling moment of the record. It will give you goose bumps at the least and waterfalls coming out of your eyes at the most if you have the misfortune of relating to the themes in question. This sad mood is appropriately followed by “Blight” which is one of the more dissonant songs and “Saturnine” is another embellished tech-death banger that prepares you for the album's finale. A beautiful and moody interlude softly carries you towards the overwhelming “Only Loss”, a stomping behemoth that will leave you speechless as if you'd seen a ghost while Riley's final words “onlyyyyy loooossss” echo in your mind.

So Allegaeon have conjured all of their frustrations and turned them into strengths to share with their fans a collection of songs that sound like they came straight from the guts. This is where technical intensity meets emotion thanks to each member's musical talents and the group's ability to bring them together. The additional use of orchestrations, synths and piano help enhance the grandeur and expressive nature of the music. And last but not least I must salute Dave Otero who handled all the mixing and mastering process in a way that makes every musical element perceptible within the monstrous overall sound. It might be worth mentioning that he's also mixed the recent outputs by Aborted, Akhlys and Cattle Decapitation who, as you most likely know, all have a dense and overwhelming sound, I think that alone says enough about this man's skills. I was a bit sad to see Riley depart since he's had quite an evolution during his time with Allegaeon but the band are now reunited with their former vocalist Ezra Haynes and I have full confidence that whatever they put out next will be brilliant. “Damnum” still leaves a strong impact more than two years after its release and will remain a timeless album!

I have been following Allegaeon since 2010, when they released their first album: Fragments of Form and Function, on Metal Blade Records. I was instantly a fan of their highly technical, yet super melodic sound. They had quite a few line up changes throughout the years but Greg Burgess is the only original member still in the band and I feel like no matter the changes, he has been the connective tissue that made Allegaeon who they are. After the release of Damnum, the band announced they were parting ways with vocalist Riley McShane, who provided vocals since Proponent for Sentience. It’s a real shame because he really shines brighter than a hot giant ball of gas collapsing in on itself, maintained by the constant nuclear fusion in its core. I can say with confidence that this is the most ambitious and musically diverse album the band ever did.

Damnum starts with the song Bastards of The Earth, which has a beautiful classical acoustic guitar intro. Nevertheless, it doesn’t stay calm for a long time, after a few second, they immediately erect a bombastic wall of sound, with every instruments in full gear, from the blast beats to the chunky guitar riff and the long, deep scream/growl of Riley. Everything hits you in the face perfectly, like any metal fan likes. After the middle mark, there is a beautiful break, with the signature classical guitar of Greg. Furthermore, not only is the music brilliant on this album, but the lyrical content should also be highlighted. Instead of focusing mainly on science and science fiction, like on their previous albums, they get a lot more personal and philosophical. While still having a little bit of those elements in. On Bastards Of The Earth, for example, we have these lines: “Thrust into a world akin to darkness, ruptured by the sun.” and “A spinning wheel that spells disaster - the circle growing deeper every day.” The world of darkness ruptured by the sun is obviously the world we live in today and I see the spinning wheel as a metaphor for our current capitalist system that gave us global warming and the disasters that it causes and will continue to cause.

This song, like all the other songs on this album, has a real proggy feel to it. What I mean by that is that almost every song is over five minutes long and they don’t necessarily have a traditional verse chorus verse chorus structure. Nevertheless, in true technical death metal fashion, there is so much solos everywhere. They definitely do not disappoint on that end. Rather than focusing only on the technical abilities, Greg Burgess is as much technical as he is melodic in his playing. I think he writes most of the music, but on Damnum, every member participated in the writing process, which sprinkles a lot of new and different ideas everywhere. A few examples would be the classical guitars, which is not a new idea for them, but is featured a lot more on this album. Greg is an incredible guitarist on both electric and classical guitars. Another example would be the beautiful and epic sounding piano solo on the song Blight or the classical prog rock organs playing in the background in the beginning of Of Beasts And Worms, or the classical guitars mixed with a tam tam rhythm on the song To Carry My Grief Through Torpor And Silence etc. You get the idea.

Of Beasts And Worms has the most catchy chorus of all of the album. Here, Riley McShane’s clean vocals are on full display. In the last two albums, we had a little taste of his beautiful clean vocals but never to this degree. His voice is so clear and pure, when he goes for higher notes, singing:” This is the place where I rest my bones and the river that cleanses me runs alone. To be there again where my spirit longs and sleep in the soil forevermore”, it gives me chills every time! I think these lyrics could be interpretated as someone who gives up fighting. I feel like these lyrics are more mature and darker, abording real subject matters. Musically, it feels almost as if Mikael Åkerfeldt himself wrote the song: the quieter clean guitars, the rock organs with a soft, spoken words section. (Spoiler alert, it is not the only time Opeth is a clear inspiration on this album.)

Without a doubt, the most Opeth sounding part on the album is on the song Called Home. It starts with a beautiful classical guitar picking and after a while, the drum beat starts slowly. I don’t know who made the recording and the mixing, but it is masterfully done! Everything sounds clean, but completely organic at the same time. We also get a bit of Gojira influences here and there. On the song Blight for example, it starts as a heavy technical death metal riff and drum patterns, but they add the signature “Gojira slide” here and there, which is a cool little musical easter egg. This has also a beautiful and quite long piano solo. It sounds like a grand piano, which makes the whole thing sound even more majestic!

I think I could go on and on talking about this album. After all, it was my favorite album of 2022 for a good reason. There are so much little things you don’t necessarily hear during your first listens. For example, on In Mourning, they adjusted the noisegate so that you can hear Greg’s breathing while he plays guitar. That subtitle touch is just one example of how meticulously crafted everything is. For a few years, it was evident that Allegaeon was going more and more on the prog side, with their many Rush covers, but on Damnum, they really nailed the mix of progressive, technical and melodic death metal blend. I can’t wait to see what they will offer next!

Allegaeon is a band I've been low key following since their 2014 effort Elements of the Infinite as one of my introductions to the progressive death metal genre. I was familiar with late era Death and some Dan Swano, but Allegaeon drew me into the modern technical/progressive death metal scene. Fast forward 8 years and it's become one of my favorite genres and we've had 2 other Allegaeon albums in the intervening years. I very much enjoyed those albums, with Apoptosis being both their most aggressive and most consistent album. Damnum comes in and defies expectations a little bit. This is probably their most melodic album yet, with more clean vocals than I've heard from them and yet it still maintains that brutal, technical death metal feel. What's different this time is the clean/melodic sections are more distinct from the rest of the music. In general what really struck me about this album is the variety of sounds and styles, and rhythms; this is a much more diverse album than I think their last few were and it ends up being one of their more accessible albums. 

As usual the band's relentless energy keeps Damnum an engaging album, but what separates it from their previous efforts is the variety of sounds and overall pacing of the album. There are a lot more clean passages with acoustic guitar (really well mixed acoustic guitar I might add). I'll get to some of the individual songs, but talking about the album as a whole, this is definitely Allegaeon's most balanced album yet. Sure if you prefer straight forward tech death then you might not like this so much. If you, like me, live for progressive death metal containing moments of peace and hope, moments of foreboding, and sections of brutality, all weaved together expertly, then this album is for you. I think their songwriting has improved greatly, and I think the vocals are the most noticeably improved aspect, both clean and harsh. The production is pristine, I don't know if it's better than Apoptosis, but it's phenomenal, the drums sound great and the bass is quite audible; usually the two big things I listen for when judging production. From an aesthetic and sound perspective this album is a massive success and I'm sure it's going to rank high on some year end lists including mine. 

Now as for the songs themselves, they all work well for me. I think there are some songs that do blend together a bit, but if you like the sound then it shouldn't be an issue. There are some big standouts though; "Of Beasts and Worms" has one of the best hooks on the album and makes good use of that variety I was talking about. They make good use of organ paired with the acoustic guitar for the intro that builds up really well to the explosion of death metal you know is coming. "To Carry my Grief Through Torpor and Silence" is another song that stood out to me as one of the more progressive songs on the album as that variety and pacing shines through again. "Called Home" being the longest individual track on the album has some of the best moments in the whole album, and really is the perfect microcosm to understand what Damnum is really all about. "Saturnine" and "The Dopamine Void" are both really good, but what can make or break an album is the ending. "Only Loss" ended up being my favorite song on the album so yeah I would say this album has a spectacular ending. There's no point in me trying to describe the song to you, but I will tell you that the chorus almost sounds like it could have been from a Devin Townsend song and I absolutely adore it. Only Loss is an absolute banger and you should listen to it now.

This is a technical death metal album first and foremost, at times reminding me of Archspire, sometimes Stortregn and sometimes Scar Symmetry or Black Crown Initiate (to clarify, I am not calling all of these bands tech death). I love tech death, but the genre can feel really stale sometimes. For me a really good tech death album needs a variety of sounds, styles, and tempos and this album has all of that and more. It's not a perfect album, but Allegaeon really left it all on the mixing board with this one. This very much feels like the sound they have been building towards over the years and at the moment, I would call this their crowning achievement.