After a long awaited period of time, California’s very own Interloper have released the debut full-length album titled Search Party and is released through Nuclear Blast Records. Those who don’t know, Interloper’s been around since 2014 with drummer Aaron Stechauner and lead guitarist Miles Baker whom everyone knows from their time and contributions being in the technical death metal band Rings Of Saturn and then there’s vocalist Andrew Virrueta who’s also been involved in other projects such as Vampire Squid and a live session member from The Faceless. Now rest assure, Interloper’s style of metal is all over the board combining elements of progressive, metalcore, technical and even melodic to a extent but rather keep the music fresh, innovative and structured as I truly feel that this release front to back is wide-ranging and experimental at times.
What amazed me upon hearing this album is the amount of craftsmanship, detail and technical proficiency from these talented musicians know exactly what they’re capable of doing and I have to give them credit where its rightfully due because its not very often in this genre where I can keep coming back on a constant rotation to hear a album that is dynamic and atmospheric at times just made me wanting more and more as I heard the album in full. Now, to say this band like Interloper who heavily relies on organic musicianship and amazingly crafted musical signatures have already contributed themselves to create the most polished, high-quality sounding albums in 2021. From the songs you hear such as Baring Teeth, Pathkeeper, Moonlight, Idle Years and Cheshire they’ve introduced some fascinating guitar melodies, stronger emphasizes on drumming, audible bass structures and even some vocals by Andrew Virrueta not only done a remarkable job keeping every instrumental comfortable and appropriate where it feels fresh but rather keeping the progression, instrumentation and lyricism very well diversified where each instrument doesn’t strife away within the mixing department being one of the best highlights upon hearing this amazing articulating structure. Search Party has identified naturalistic signatures which is embedded to make outstanding arrangements where you can see how far they’ve taken their devotion onto making extreme metal to the next level.
Songwriting wise, Interloper’s atmospheric layers of memorable contexts which symbolizes this beautifully designed album which took many dedicated outcomes to really understand and comprehend the intelligence these musicians has brought the extreme metal music a much rather experimented, powerfully driven and a rollercoaster so impacted, you want to keep asking more and more to come. Search Party is a album that showcases Interloper’s finest musical approach and professionalism which should not be slept on if you’re looking for a comforting record in 2021.
Overall Score: 9.5/10
Review by Jake Butler
