Aversed did it. Who would have thought that? The airtime is down to a benign 40 minutes from 57 minutes on Impermanent. Also, methinks that there’s much less Arch Enemy baked into Erasure of Color compared to what was before. And these are good pointers toward a successful sophomore piece of an up-and-coming Extreme Metal band. Or is it really? Harsh musings and melodic exploits.
Right from the start, the change in vocal style is truly remarkable. It looks like Haydee Irizarry and her Gluz-leaning1 antics left the building in 2021, and one Sarah Hartman moved into her spot. A relatively unknown vocalist, true, but one with an extraordinary set of pipes. From merciless rough roars, over crystalline clears, to soft croonings, she can do it all. A true whirlwind of different moods and flavors – and a few steps up the ladder over the last record. And it is this versatility that helped carry the flag for this specific slab of lava-oozing special alloy.
But whenever you fire up Erasure of Color, one cannot help but be impressed by the mad riff fest serving a gluttony of guitar geekery garnished with solos sitting on top of their melodic musings. This is first-rate guitar prowess, sitting straight on top of the mix and sometimes right in front of the vocals. And that instills the piece with a boatload of raw and rough-hewn power. Albeit that the leads, solos, and riffs often still lean a tad too far into Arch Enemy territory. But perhaps this is just me. In other words, the record indeed sports a high-intensity and densely written brand of – what they call – Melodic Death Metal. This isn’t your typical sleep-walking Swedish style. And if you yearn for the majestic melodeath crowd, leave this review at once and travel here.
Aversed‘s bread and butter is more akin to the In Flames of this world and a heretic version of Fallujah. A mix of deathly melodics mixed with monstrous tech death and some Post Metal passages. And then, surprise, Erasure of Color suddenly staggers drunkenly into Metalcore territory – and even a bit too much to my taste. And that, when they should stay on the rougher shores of their many talents, such as thrash or an upgraded version of the frankly astonishing tech death powers.
In the end, Erasure of Color maintained this impression of an Extreme Metal band with further potential. There is a lot of talent in this band, no doubt about it. But the production seems to be plagued by a lot of unfinished loose ends. It is as if the band wanted to present a rich smörgåsbord of – well – anything Aversed could possibly dream up. An aural showroom of sorts, displaying all those shiny objects that somehow lurched directly from the songwriter’s head into the soundscape. And that leads to a certain tepidness that is further accentuated by a slowdown on the second half. As if all the good quality powder was used up in the fireworks of the first few tracks. And suddenly, the awful power of boom ‘n’ bang didn’t quite work that well anymore.
Now, that won’t mean Erasure is a bad record, far from it. The band produced a technically astute, high-intensity slab of razor-sharp alloy. A proficient genre-blender full of tasty metallic nuggets driven along by stellar guitar work and supported by a world-class vocalist in her prime. This is a record for trve metalheads, for heroes of the moshpit unafraid and unfazed by the prospect of 40 minutes of unabashed brutality rolling in from all sides. This record is a five-alarm fire of magnitude 10 metal ferocity. Wild and untamed, as it should be.
Ed’s note: Ever tried Lauren Babic? She’s grinding a bit more, but you might like what you hear.
Record Rating: 6/10 | Label: M-Theory Audio | Web: Official Band Site
Release Date: 21 March 2025
- As in Alissa White-Gluz or Arch Enemy.-↩