Allegaeon The Ossuary Lens CD Review
Allegaeon is a new band to me, they shouldn’t be, but they are. In true fashion I turned a blind eye to them when they released their first album “Fragments of Form and Function” in 2010. I dismissed them as another Techdeth band that I could do without. I could’ve been wrong, I could’ve been right. However, when their new album “The Ossuary Lens” hit my box, I was immediately interested and amused!
“The Ossuary Lens” dropped worldwide today (4/4) and while it’s crammed with the Techdeth I spoke of, I’d also consider it Melodic Death Metal. Furthermore, it’s equally packed with enough Prog Metal to make Yes & Rush stand up and applaud. Will it win the world over? Probably not, but for fans of these genres, it will be a bright spot for Metal in 2025. For me, it’s a brilliant release from front to back even though I’m not much of a fan of this type of music. However, I’m a fan of well-recorded, written and thought-out music of all kinds, I might not choose to listen to it often, but I can appreciate the talent and beauty in it. And that’s where I land with Allegaeon’s new album. As I’m a drummer in my spare time, this album is chock full of intense drumming, the time signatures coupled with the blastbeats and precise bass drum patterns are truly insane. The melodies laced throughout the album are also well done. There’s way more melody than you should ever get on an album like this, seriously… “Carried by Delusion” immediately jumps out as a perfect example, it moves at the speed of the light and gnaws at your senses for the entirety, but the underlying melody feels so good that you hardly notice that your senses are being assaulted. The album’s first single “Driftwood” also carries the same weight, except it’s more approachable specifically in the chorus with the clean vocal lines. This is probably the only time I can understand any of the lyrics aside from the tune “Wake Circling Above” which has a gorgeous clean vocal in the chorus. Speaking of vocals, the band has brought back their old lead vocalist Ezra Haynes on this album. I’m not sure about the albums beforehand, but the vocals on “Ossuary Lens” are done quite well. Yes, they’re gnarly but they’re melodic and well done in the context of the music that’s laid out here. We’re not talking about cookie monsters, so that’s something else the band has going for them. In the scope of the Metal scene, the vocals remind me of In Flames and or Darkthrone at times and given that everything, but the kitchen sink is being thrown around musically, it’s cool to be able to really vibe on the vocal lines whether harsh or clean.
The Ossuary Lens is 45 minutes of the finest Prog/Melo/Techdeth that I’ve come across in a long while. Although it’s not my chosen variety of Metal, this is an album that’ll get multiple listens around here. The production and recording values are magnificent in the realm of the genres of Metal represented, it doesn’t get much better than this!