The Deep Longing for Annihilation

The first album of Portland, Oregon based band Alluvial has been long awaited by the followers of both founding members o the band, Keith Merrow and Wes Hauch has been released in January 6th, 2017 . Both of these musicians have been involved in some of the most cutting-edge technical metal bands at some point, most notably Conquering Dystopia, where Keith and the seven-string guitar god Jeff Loomis (ex-Nevermore, Arch Enemy) made some of the most intricate, technologically-driven yet absolutely catchy and groovy instrumental music, and the notorious The Faceless where Wes was a part of their third studio album and touring cycle till his departure from the band in 2014. It is no surprise that The Deep Longing of Annihilation should be delivering some of the greatest instrumental death metal sounds ever recorded.

Usually I start the review from the instrumental standpoint. This time I want to put the emphasis on the one of the most crucial aspects of the record. First thing that hits the listeners ear is this eerie atmosphere you don’t really find in this kind of music. Instrumental guitar oriented music tends to sound a little bit dry for most cases. In the case of Alluvial you don’t really get that. Right off the bat you feel like you’ve been put in a different dimension where a certain nihilistic sense of dread takes control.

Now let’s go over the instrumental part of the music, and as usual I’ll start with the guitars.

The opening track “Colony” starts with Wes’s lead that immediately suggests that his technical abilities to play the instrument is no joke. As soon as the rest of the instruments kick in you are being pummeled by the massive yet clear and instantly recognizable tone of rhythm guitars. If you check out the official album stream in Youtube, you’ll see why the comment section is saturated with comments praising Keith's understanding of guitar tone and after witnessing it by your own ears it leaves little to no doubts why.

The drumming in this album is handled by Dan Presland, most notably the drummer of Australian extreme progressive metal band Ne Obliviscaris. If you try to compare the drum parts to Conquering Dystopia’s record, it is not a saturated and overly complex yet it has a really obvious purpose along with the rest of the instruments - the atmosphere and making sure everything glues together for the same reason. The production is immaculate, every single hit is articulated to perfection without making it sound sampled or somewhat synthetic.

The bass guitar plays a huge role in overall sound, tone and feel of the music. While listening to parts where the entire band is playing together, it is not as recognizable as you’d expect, but as soon as the rest of the instruments take a little step back, you can clearly hear what the bass is doing. It’s extremely distorted, yet punchy, the low end is something that pretty much ties it all together. Personally I’ve never heard a bass this distorted but still able to maintain the character and precision that it is required for this type of music.

The track listing of the album is really thought out. While the opening track starts with a certain fury, the second track that shares the title of the album really puts you in the general mood of the rest of the songs. It takes you through these mood swings of melancholy growing to the heaviest extremities of technicality and brutality.

To close up the review I want to thank the guys in the band for this amazing record. It’s been a long since the instrumental music scene has put out anything like this. So for anyone who enjoyed the Conquering Dystopia this should be a real treat to listen. Of course the album is somewhat aimed towards the guitar nerds and recording enthusiasts, it should satisfy anyone who fancies heavy metal music.

Originally written for my personal blog https://noumenonblog.tumblr.com