I read an interview with founding members Carlos Quintanilla and Miguel Espinosa of the Andorran progressive death metal band Persefone once where they mentioned they had known each other since they were fifteen years old and were listening to bands such as Dream Theater, Symphony X and Dimmu Borgir. Back then, they lived in Spain, but they quickly relocated to Andorra, where other band members were recruited. The main problem they’d had, prior to founding Persefone, was allegedly finding people who would be capable of playing the complex music Quintanilla and Espinosa had in mind. They might have been right, because the six members of Persefone play in an entirely different league than pretty much any other band out there.
Persefone already set themselves apart with albums like “Spiritual Migration” and “Aathma”, both containing ridiculously complicated songs and at the same time haunting melodies, but I feel like “metanoia” is yet another step forward. For me, the main reasons for that are the creative odd time signatures and silences throughout the album. Although it’s not uncommon for a progressive metal band to play in relatively complex time signatures like 7/8 or 5/4, I feel like those are starting to become a little predictable. Persefone solves my problem by, for instance, writing the instrumental Leap of Faith in a mixture of 7/8 and 9/8, which caused me a few headaches trying to count along to. That’s how I like my progressive metal.
The drawback of this insanely sophisticated songwriting can be that it quickly becomes too much on the listener’s ears. Persefone hasn’t fallen into this trap by cleverly making use of silence, an in my opinion greatly underestimated part of music. Take the intro of “Leap of Faith”, the instrumental middle part of “Aware of Being Watched” and the first part of the fantastic instrumental “Consciousness (Pt.3)”. These important songs find the perfect balance between interesting and overwhelming on the one hand and retrospection and peace on the other hand. Furthermore, they give the album breathing space, in order for the album to feel shorter than the almost one hour runtime. Persefone show a masterful piece of storytelling here that I haven’t seen done in music for a long time (perhaps with the exception of Devin Townsend’s “Empath”).
This intricate songwriting means that it’s probably going to take a while to truly get into “metanoia”. The only accessible songs on the record are “Katabasis” and “Merkabah” and those are possibly the only way into this introvert album too. That will result in a number of not so patient people skipping the album altogether, but if you take your time with it, you’ll be greatly rewarded. I’ve played the album in its entirety around 25 times now and I still well up during the bridge of “Architecture of the I”, where keyboardist and clean vocalist Espinosa takes it on with lead vocalist Pia’s screams and growls in one of the most beautiful and heartfelt minutes of music I’ve heard this year. Possibly even more satisfying is the recognizable part in “Consciousness (Pt.3)” that’s taken from the title track of 2013’s “Spiritual Migration” and makes me do air drumming every time.
The album’s closing epic, “Anabasis”, is divided into three parts, with the second part featuring some guest appearances. If I’d have a complaint about “metanoia” it would in fact be that the numerous guest vocals on the album – except Merethe Soltvedt’s vocals – aren’t as impressive as the band’s performances. It feels like Persefone could’ve done without the majority of them, but I’m nitpicking. With an album as majestic as “metanoia” it wouldn’t even feel right to criticize it, and I objectively can’t either. This album is an all-time great and gets even better with every listen. What a treat.
Highlights: “Architecture of the I”, “Aware of Being Watched”, “Merkabah”
If there is a band that I can call a favourite, that band is undoubtedly Persefone. The Andorran progressive death metal masters have been growing and growing, building a name for themselves as one of the most unique, authentic and surprising entities in the progressive and extreme metal worlds. With their previous two albums, “Spiritual Migration” and “Aathma” being praised as masterpieces and game changers by both fans and press, they have certainly solidified their identity and settled into a sound that is theirs alone. But with these last two records focusing on similar topics and sounds, the worry came to me about whether they were gonna start getting repetitive, or find a way to stay fresh and relevant.
In comes “Metanoia” and shatters all concerns without a moment’s notice. Yes, it is still focused on a spiritual theme and concept, and yes, it still relies on their absurd mashup of complex technicality that has defined who they are for over a decade. But the structural approach to the album, sound design and perspective of the concept sees a new entity that envelopes everything Persefone was so far, and further aims to explore uncharted territory that they haven’t ventured before. With this one, the spiritual theme becomes an evolutionary concept, one that allows the listener to sink into an initial emotional state and observe the transformations as the album flows, rather than just presenting the themes. It is not a classic concept album with a story and characters but rather a depiction of a spiritual journey, offered from a first-person perspective. When you listen to “Metanoia”, you are the concept.
Following up on the superb intro, “Metanoia” featuring guest vocals from Einar Solberg of Leprous, we are then presented with “Katabasis”, the starting point of our journey, a painful, limited, confused state of being that causes suffering, but also a will to transform. Going through all the pain and struggle of shedding one’s former self, the album takes as through a variety of twists and turns with each song feeling different, until “Anabasis” is reached, the state of freedom and peace, where one can breathe and see clearly. I really love how the concept of spirituality and oneness becomes a story that you can sink into and evolve through it. It feels more like an active process than a presentation of feelings, and that makes it so much more engaging for the listener, creating anticipation and curiosity for what’s to come next at each turn.
Musically, they are partly the same, but partly redefined. The typical Persefone songwriting style of “absolutely never repeating the same bar twice” is still the core of their compositional approach, annoying to those with a weak spirit, but fulfilling to those who understand that simplicity in music is a sin! Oh well… not quite, but you get my point. The music keeps you on edge, never knowing where it will go. The riffs are always moving up and down the fretboard, alternating runs, chugs, off-tempo-patterns and pretty much every metal guitar technique imaginable with the purpose of squeezing as many patterns and musical ideas in as little time as possible. Needless to say that the drums and bass follow along in a similar fashion. I’m particularly sucked into the drum performance while listening to this album, because it creates the complex backbone for the music to unfold its madness but at the same time jumps into the fore-front more often than not with all the possible species of fills, transitions, build-ups, trips and changes that one can imagine. It’s a painful joy to observe.
And since this is prog, we of course need a lot of very fast guitar solos. Almost every song on the album has at least one guitar solos to show off the madness, whether it’s focused on sweeps and shredding (“Architecture of the I”), melody and fluidity (“Merkabah”) or pure vibrant epicness (“Consciousness part 3”), guitarist Carlos Lozano always knows how to incorporate his mad-shred maniac skills into the songs and let the solos become a part of the already complex sonic structure that unfolds.
But “Metanoia” isn’t as brutal as previous releases. Harsh vocalist Marc Martins Pia is only present on about half the songs on the album, giving way for tracks like the instrumentals “Leap of Faith” and “Consciousness part 3” and the exclusively clean vocal driven “Aware of Being Watched”. While my inner death metal fan was a bit disappointment by this reduction in screams, I have to admit that the album makes a lot of sense with this balance and variety to the songs. The feeling of a journey is much more evident when each song brings a different emotion, exploring a different phase of the transformation. “Katabasis” is pain, so the scream is essential. “Architecture of the I” is the burning of parts that no longer serve you. Again, “The screams make sense”. And “Merkabah” is the tipping point where all the shadows and illusions of the limited self are cast aside. Again, the screams are essential, expressing the outbreak from the previous state. But the instrumentals seem like breath-spaces between the struggles, moments of introspection and understanding. The waves of calm and brutal throughout the album make it such an authentic experience of struggle, of moving back and forth between certain emotions in the attempt of self-exploration and understanding. Then it all comes together in the massive 3-part closer Anabasis, the triumphant moment when everything comes together. This song goes through calm parts, brutal parts, complex and intricate sections as well as an epic, anthemic finale. It is all the elements combined to make Persefone come together as one.
All vocalists offer superb performances, and by that I mean Marc Martins on screams, Miguel Espinosa on cleans, as well as guest performances by Einar Solberg, Steffen Kummerer of Obscura, and Merethe Solvedt from “Two Steps from Hell”. Yes, this one has a lot of guests. The final track also features a majestic guitar solo from Angel Vivaldi. With so many musicians coming together, the album really comes to life and expands in so many directions that you will need multiple listens to really take in everything that’s going on and admire it in all its glory.
I must also give a special shout-out to Miguel “Moe” Espinosa’s keyboard delivery. He’s always been a very capable player but on this one he focused less on technique and more on atmosphere, feels, and experimenting with different sounds. Never has Persefone been as rich in sounds design as it is on this album, going from electronic, vibrant and meditative effects to larger-than-life string sections sounding almost symphonic and to clear, gentle piano parts. All the keyboard effects enrich the soundscape for beyond that of a metal band, making Persefone’s most epic and complete sound to date. “Leap of Faith” is an experimentation of keyboard effects and sound design unlike anything they ever released. But of course, he also squeezed in some fast playing and a quick solo in “Aware of Being Watched”.
And one thing that still needs to be mentioned, is the one, most prog thing anyone could do, filling the 11-minute instrumental “Consciousness part 3” with multiple reprises from the Spiritual Migration album, mainly revolving around the Consciousness part 1 & 2 from that album. While that may seem as a bit of a cliché thing to do, they fused everything together so elegantly that it feels as if all those riffs and themes were specifically written for this song. It must be one of the most clever approaches to reprises I’ve ever heard.
So that’s “Metanoia”. Persefone somehow succeed to change and evolve while maintaining most of their traits. It’s an album that, for a fan, satisfies with familiarity but also breaks boundaries and expectations. I’m astounded at how this band manages to stay on top of their game album after album and I couldn’t recommend them enough to any fan of progressive music.
The most important theme in describing Persefone's music is 'elevating emotion'. The song 'Upward Explosion' from the album 'Spiritual Migration' released in 2013 is a song with an explicit intention to rise from the title, and there are other tracks that seem to induce such a sense of uplift or uplift in several albums. If you listen to their music, you get the impression that the various components, including the synths that go up towards the high notes, seem to gradually raise the tension of the whole song or the whole album.
In fact, when I first heard the pre-released songs on this album, I was very disappointed. There were no elements that captured the heart, such as vague lyrics and concepts that did not know what they meant, and flashy performances that seemed to hide the clichéd composition. I know it's well made, but it didn't feel right in my heart. Since I had already made a reservation at that point, my worries grew even more.
However, as soon as I listened to the album that arrived 6 days after it was released, my worries turned into joy. When I heard the two songs on the album that I thought were not good, I thought they were perfectly beautiful, and the other songs were so appropriate and excellent that it gave me goosebumps. In particular, I was shocked when I listened to the 4th track, 'Leap of Faith'. I wasn't a fan of original songs, but the songs on this album were so perfect both technically and artistically that I felt like they were the core of this album.
Then, why did the tracks that seemed to be lacking at the time of the pre-release gave infinite impression when listening to the album? It's a buildup. The above-mentioned uplifting factors do not just affect listeners. It also has a huge impact on the songs before and after the song. This is the so-called 'build-up'. It's easy to understand how one song affects the tracks behind it. The intro 'Metanoia' supported the pre-released song 'Katabasis' in this album as well. Aside from that, many other albums also use continuation songs. However, it is difficult to intuitively understand that it affects previous songs. What are you going to do with a song that's already finished? As the saying goes, there are cases where songs with a disappointing ending are completed. The 6th track 'Merkabah', a pre-released song on this album, is like that. After the song that felt a bit lacking, the highlight of this album, 'Consciousness Part III', followed, and it became a complete song.
The overall atmosphere of the album is similar to the previous works, but if you look at it, it looks a little closer to 'Spiritual Migration' from 13 years ago than 'Aathma' from the previous album. In particular, considering that the Consciousness series continued from the 13-year series, it can be said that it was intentional. However, the concept of these two albums is completely different. If the 13-year album deals with spiritual transcendence, this album is based on Xenophon's book 'Anabasis'. This point can also be seen in the Western Asian atmosphere that can be felt in the album. This is because Anabashis itself deals with the life story of returning from the Persian expedition. Ironically, the title of track 6, Merkabah, is in Hebrew, the language of Israel, which is currently hostile to Iran, a descendant of Persia.
Looking at the overall composition, the tension of the whole album rises rapidly from the intro, peaks in Merkabah and Concsiousness, and then gradually loosens in the title track, Anabasis. Rather, the composition itself is similar to the previous work, Aathma. This is because Anavassis itself, the original work, has such a structure, but it is in contrast to the composition of tension that soars backwards in Spiritual Migration, which is actually the previous work. The material is also contrasting, and although the 13-year-old work is explicit from the name, it contains the process of the soul leaving the body, whereas this album is the process of return. It is exactly the opposite in many ways. If these elements are intended, it shows that their level is unusual.
The performance is already perfect, needless to say. Somewhat noteworthy, this time, rather than melodic death metal, I got a very strong feeling that it was progressive metal that mainly uses hash vocals. Even then, the proportion has decreased significantly compared to the previous one. However, as the proportion has decreased, it exudes a powerful presence every time it appears. And although there aren't many, gorgeous guests are also an important factor in enjoying this album. The intro, performed by Leprous vocalist Einar Solberg, overwhelms listeners and immerses them in the album, and the guitarist Steffen Kummerer and Angel Vivaldi on track 9 are also perfect.
It's only 1/6th of the year, but if I had to pick the best album of the year, I think I would choose this album. It seems to be the completion of Progressive Death Metal.
For all those of you who’ve followed my reviews, you’d know by now that I’m quite the tech metal geek. When the technicality is in prog metal, tech death or djent, chances are I’ll dig it provided the songwriting isn’t too compromised. With the Andorran techsters, I’d only heard a few songs previously and thought, “Yeah that’s good”, but nothing really stayed with me and I moved on to other similar bands. Until now, once I’ve actually got down to listening to the entire album and boy have I been missing out. Since the release of Spiritual Migration, these guys have been steadily gaining popularity from a vast section of metalheads and listening to this album, it’s easy to see why. With an epic combination of symphonic metal, melodeath along with prog death/tech death metal, this album is a true feast for the years, provided you have an open mind for course. Suffice to say that I definitely have a lot of catching up to do when it comes down to listening to their previous efforts.
The first thing that leaps out at you is that these guys have a very innate and delicate sense of melody which they manage to weave around their technical acrobatics and heavy pummeling to great effect. Many bands struggle and fail over multiple albums just trying to manage this feat and yet these guys pull it off with spectacular ease. Not once does the technicality take over the melodic aspect of the music which is quite rare to see in both prog music and tech death these days. “Katabasis” spares nothing and no one by laying everything to waste within its reach along with the fact that when the synths and the keys take command, it isn’t done in the lame, generic way that bands like CoF or Dimmu Borgir employ by simply playing a few root notes, but by taking influence from the symphonic greats like Shade Empire, Therion and Hollenthon, for instance. Unlike a lot of other similar bands out there, the clean vocals aren’t cringey and forced at all and it’s a true pleasure seeing the band use them to great effect in every possible way.
One of the main factors of this album that makes it work so well is diversity. If you’re looking for a prog death feast, then nuggets like “Merkabah” and “Consciousness [Part 3] (with some beautifully haunting piano parts and searing guitar licks looping each other to create fascinating progressions that will have you hooked for weeks on end)”will be right up your alley. But if symphonic metal is your cup of tea, you’ll feel right at home with “Architecture Of The I” and “Leap Of Faith” and for a melodeath fan, killer pics like “Aware Of Being Watched” should be more than enough to take you for a one-way ticket ride into melodic bliss. The sheer diversity of this album is what makes it all the more special with each and every spin revealing newer riffs patterns and enchanting melodic motifs that are guaranteed to stick in your head for good.
Truth be told, I thought this album was a bit too all over the place at first, but repeated listens revealed the blissful musical journey that awaited me and I couldn’t be happier. Surprisingly, these guys even manage to add alternative rock influences into the mix as well, making way for a more enriched and varied sonic experience than one would usually expect from the hordes of tech death/prog metal bands. But seriously, just when I thought the band had reached the zenith of epicness and melodic beauty with “Consciousness [Part3]” the band has saved the best for last with the 3 part epic “Anabasis”. All the parts perfectly combine superb technicality and prog shifts with raging brutality and somber melodic parts that would make stalwarts like Opeth and Ne Obliviscaris proud. With the last echoing piano parts providing an epic fadeout, I couldn’t possibly ask for a more perfect end to the album. By the looks of it, I’ll be spinning this doozy for the next couple of months and trust me, once you give it a good listen, you will too.
How do I even begin this? Let’s just start by saying that this review won’t exactly be the most un-biased you’ll find. Persefone has been my official favorite band for a number of years, and I have a strong belief that they can do no wrong. But regardless of my fanboy-ism, I think if you give the band a go, you will quickly find that the praise is justified. Holding the banner for Andorran metal, and currently having a monopoly over the country’s metal scene, these progressive death metal titans have built themselves into a force to be reckoned since their inception in 2001, evolving in both concept and sound. From the dark themes, mythology lessons and Samurai culture delivered by their earlier death metal albums, to the progressive nature of their later spiritual themed records, Persefone stands as one of the most challenging yet expressive bands you can think of. They rely on an extremely complex sound, filled to the brim with ideas and rhythmic intricacy, as one would expect from prog, but their essence is found in the way that their ideas flow together to convey a sensation, a feeling, a message. They are one of those rare entities that can take a difficult concept and actually hit home with the message and musicality, and the latest outing ‘metanoia’ is the latest of evidence for just that fact.
Persefone’s sound is one of a kind. The collective strength of the band lies in their capacity to put together their ideas, particularly their capacity to make complex technicality and immersive atmosphere work in unison. The guitars are bringing down the heavy riffs with tones of twists and surprising turns within the songs, refusing to settle into repeating patterns. The dual guitar work allows for soloing over messed up time patterns, creating such beautifully disrupted cohesion (I make oxymorons cos I’m a moron). The drumming is relentless yet effective and well thought out, evading the clichés of technical death metal but still keeping listeners’ jaws dropped and brains exploded. And then the mayhem meets the peace with the rich diversified range of sound effect piano and keyboard alongside the emotional, warm and soothing clean singing, contrasting to the screams. All these elements of the sound are like cogwheels in an engineered system that would leave MIT graduates dumbfounded. And they all work to tell a story, an abstract level narrative, free of characters, to inspire their fellow listeners to grow.
Opening with a dramatic intro, featuring the vocal stylings of Leprous singer Einar Solberg, over a compelling grandiose soundscape, the album immerses us into a state of introspective awareness from the get go, leading into what will be a journey of self-discovery and rebirth. As the previous 2 albums have shown, Persefone’s core message seems to be the journey through facing a necessary change, to deconstruct and reconstruct one’s self into a new entity, in harmony with the world, and with the difficulty of taking on such a transformative process of the self. Thus, we enter ‘Katabasis’, the descent, one that for the first time in Persefone’s concepts, seems to be taken voluntarily. And this song just delivers the goods. It’s fast, aggressive, riff driven, rich in instrumental nerding-about, and focused mostly on screaming vocals. The same style of complex adrenaline infused musical cohesion follows into “Architecture of the I”, showcasing the borderline between technical and progressive death metal that Persefone is so good at. They avoid the clichés, keeping blasting and double kicks to a minimum, and instead offering rhythmically complex riffage with swift surprising transitions, and a very human raw screaming voice to top off the sound. Of course, the keyboards and clean vocals play a consistent part as well, but we’ll get more into that further down the line.
As the album progresses, the aggression tones down and the music becomes more cinematic, dramatic, and even theatrical, sometimes sounding like a movie soundtrack. The band’s keyboard player and clean singer Miguel Espinosa confesses to an influence by Hans Zimmer, and we feel it in full swing on the instrumental interlude “Leap of Faith”. “Aware of Being Watched” gives us another dose of rich sound design and it’s the only song with only clean vocals on the record, featuring alongside Miguel, the voice of Merethe Soltvedt (Two Steps From Hell), as the cinematic and technical components of the band’s sound duel through the song. The shift from descent to ascent occurs in “Merkabah” where we see Persefone at their most catchy and infectious point so far, offering rich headbang-worthy grooves and constant alternation between clean singing and powerful screaming. We are then lead into “Consciousness Pt.3”, probably the greatest surprise on the album for old fans of the band. This instrumental colossus takes us on a journey that cohesively merges together reprises from older songs of the band, with new ideas, into a new context and a new feeling. We’re left with Anabasis, the ascent, and Persefone decide to end the album on a bit of a different note than its predecessor. While the 4 part “Aathma” title track felt like an epic closing depicting a state of completeness, the 3 part Anabasis feels a lot more like a final stand. It’s more dynamic, shorter, more complex and probably the most difficult song on ‘metanoia’ for band and fans alike. And to conclude the eater eggs, we’ve got Merethe joining in the vocal soundscape again, as well as Obscura’s Steffen Kummerer offering a verse of unhuman screaming.
As a whole ‘metanoia’ shows Persefone continuing to evolve from what had already been some very mature and professional releases beforehand. It’s constantly shifting, and evolving, like the chapters in a story and it refuses to become stale. Every song has its own identity, as well as its carefully chosen cohesion with the rest of the puzzle. The album is darker, the sound is more modern and electronic, but doesn’t lose the raw natural feeling that we know from the band, and the composition itself is at its most balanced point so far. But enough of my chatter, and maybe it’s a better use of your time to actually listen to the ‘metanoia’ thing. Available now on Napalm Records, Bandcamp, Spotify!
Enjoy!
Originally written for The Metal Observer