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Coming straight out of the very same area of the world that birthed Knocked Loose, Louisville’s Volcandra are bringing fantasy styled blackened melodeath to the eardrums of all who will listen. Their second album ‘The Way of Ancients’ flicks through the whole lexicon of metallic sounds, with soaring, epic moments that feel like flying, icy licks and screams, and rivetingly heavy moshpit-guaranteed riffs.
Those epic moments start off right out the gate, with the very first song ‘Birth Of The Nephalem’ introducing the album with an almost jubilantly heavy sound. With lyrics about characters and lore from the Diablo games, the band are leaning heavily on the fantasy side here, and any fans of swords and/or sorcery in their metal will be able to get their fill here very easily. The song comes out to a good and healthy five minute run time, which is a pretty regular length across the album, but that time goes by quickly with the enjoyment felt through each riff, growl, and set of blast beats. Lead single ‘Fouled Sanctity’ follows, which immediately gets to grips with putting a grotesque look on the face of the listener as a series of gruesome riffs whirl through the song, and the band have said as much - “We chose ‘Fouled Sanctity’ as the first single because it takes no time cutting to the chase. From the very first riff you know you’re in for a ripper.” They don’t hold a single punch with this one, and the lyrics paint a suitably nightmarish picture too, with plagues and razed buildings featuring amongst all sorts of wicked tales.
‘Nemesis Confession’ took up the baton with further aggression being shown off across the next five minutes, including some of vocalist Dave Palenske’s most visceral screams across the whole record. Lyrically carrying on similarly to the previous song, the fantasy setting and twisted imagery convey a depraved atmosphere that perfectly matches with the music underneath it all. As the song fades into the next, ‘Maiden Of Anguish’, the story of her rise and subsequent defeat weaves over yet more brutal metal. Whilst there are no individually weak parts in this track, its placement in the album makes it feel a little more forgettable due to the fairly similar sound of this song to the ones before and after it, although that is not to say each song doesn’t stand up of its own accord. ‘Seven Tombs’ follows, and marks itself out by taking its time over the intro before breaking back to this well-established sound of blackened melodeath, even though it has the shortest run time on the album. With each song being a new step in the journey of this album, this feels like the post-dilemma quest in a movie and progresses the story whilst still staying true to the lyrical style employed elsewhere.
Track six is ‘The Blackened Temple’ takes a little more of that epic feel, and by the end feels like a sprawling expanse of a song. With rolling riffs and pummelling drums all under guttural lyrics, even though this song is just over four minutes long, it is a brilliant example of what this band can accomplish. The penultimate track on the album is ‘Not Even Death’, which has all manner of diabolical lyrics and punishing riffs. Many individual moments here wouldn’t sound out of place next to Cryptopsy, whilst others have been dragged straight from the depths of ‘90s Norway. The final song on the album is the title track, and clocking in at almost eight minutes long it is the longest piece on the album. Mixing all the black metal and death metal influence they’ve showed off thus far with even more melodies, this song feels not too far from Iron Maiden in their heyday with a galloping pace, uplifting melodies, and fantastical lyrics. Make no mistake, there aren’t any operatic Bruce Dickinson-esque wails to be found, but the Volcandra apple has not fallen too far from the Iron Maiden tree here.
Volcandra should be immensely proud of the despicable sonics they’ve concocted here. Icy black metal, technically astute melodeath and classic heavy metal stylistics meld brilliantly across what is an incredibly listenable album. There might be a little fat left that could have been trimmed, but even that still melts in the mouth to leave a satisfying taste and certainly doesn’t upset the whole experience.
‘The Way of Ancients’ comes out on March 1st via Prosthetic Records.
Words: Jake Longhurst
Photo: Patrick Ballard
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