As someone born in the heart of the Pacific Northwest, it amazes me to see bands from my neck of the woods finally get the recognition and appreciation they deserve.
This band, “Vesuvian,” is a band I have been keeping my eyes on for a good while now, and I can easily say that this album, “Emergence,” perfectly captures the band’s finest material to date.
To describe their sound, it’s a blend of melodic death metal, symphonic death metal, and power metal influences mixed together. In this case, they’ve done such a remarkable job incorporating all the genres into one expansive record.
The album also has great production, where the instrumentation leads and craftsmanship, as well as the consistency of the tracks, are on point, sounding fresh, natural, and well-polished.
This album is also a conceptual record with lyrics reflecting on humanity and dystopian themes, with each song representing different characters. I can say that the songwriting is perhaps one of the best highlights on “Emergence.”
From hard-hitting tracks such as “Sunless Dreams,” “Seas Of Gray,” and my personal favorite on the record, “Architects of Ruin I: Indoctrinate,” these songs feature presentable depths and natural compositions. The band really fired on all cylinders, showing that they’re not afraid to experiment and explore various genres of music. This record is full of experimentation from front to back.
Not only is “Emergence” a dreamscape-like record that introduces the band’s most confident and mental albums in their career, but it’s also a strong and very authentic album that fans of both death, power, and symphonic metal need to hear.
Overall score: 9/10.
Review by Jake Butler.
