Scene kids rejoice, Adestria are here to rip out your ear drums, pinch-harmonic your face to shreds and destroy your vocal chords as you try to match the extreme bree-ness of ‘Chapters’. It’s an accomplished release from the Californian metalcore sextet; fans of Asking Alexandria, Parkway Drive and Killswitch Engage in particular will quickly lap it up.
There are a few surprises up Adestria’s sleeve that mark them out from the pack; subtle keys on ‘1984’ underpin a freight train riff that threatens to wipe away everything in its path until the whole song melts down into an unexpected piano solo, before arpeggiated guitars intertwine around a grandiose refrain. Elsewhere there’s a healthy sprinkling of electronic samples and editing which, importantly, never feel laboured or used for the sake of things. In fact, rather than your run of the mill scene band, Adestria display the kind of clinical, logical approach to metal that bands like Bleeding Through trailblazed way-back-when, never missing a chance to throw in a gothic sounding piano melody or an operatic vocal.
It’s obvious from the guitar work on this album that Russel Klein and Brian Stump spent far too much of their teenage years playing chromatic scales in their bedroom at increasingly sickening speeds, but be thankful that they did, because some of the riffs and solos on this release are utterly monstrous. ‘Defy The Stars’ in particular should leave you feeling you’ve had your face under a hand dryer for 6 hours straight.
Ultimately this isn’t the kind of game changing release which will convince anyone new to decamp to the dark side and get a Tumblr account, but fans of the genre will undoubtedly get a big kick out of tracks likes ‘Outsiders’ with its break-neck guitars and melodic chorus.
JAMIE OTSA