Source: Album Artwork
In 2011, Beastwars released their self-titled debut album to critical acclaim and in doing so, helped transform and mark the metal landscape of New Zealand. Since then they released Blood Becomes Fire in 2013, which charted at number two in the NZ album chats. Now, in 2016, they are back with their latest album, The Death Of All Things, which was released on April 22nd through Destroy Records.
This album is the third and final full-length in a post-apocalyptic trilogy and comes with nine tracks of doomy, sludgey metal. The band seem to follow this formula of quiet to loud in their tracks; the quieter sections build the tension and keep it under control until it is fully released into the heavier, more aggressive and louder parts of the tracks. Although the album is very much doom and sludge influenced, it carries a kind of psychedelic twist to it, which makes it a little unnerving (in a good way) and keeps us engaged and on our toes.
The album opens with a heavy hitting, powerful ‘Call To The Mountain’, which features a pumping chorus that immediately gives the album some life. It’s a destructive track and like many tracks on the album exhales a feeling of desperation, which fits in with the apocalyptic concept behind this album and the two previous ones. ‘Devil Of Last Night’ is chaotic, ‘Witches’ is the slow rock track of the album including changes to cleaner vocals, and ‘The Devil Took Her’ is eerie and a little mournful. It’s an emotional insight into the bands writing, featuring a very fitting violin part and really gives a breath of fresh air to the album.
The last track, the album title track, is a big finish to the album and ends The Death Of All Things in the same way it started; powerful.
Many sludge/doom bands fall into the same trap as each other. They all follow the same formula and find it hard to make each song sound individual or stand out. That does occur here with Beastwars at points, with a small number of songs moulding into each other or feeling a bit ‘filler’. However, the feeling of desperation and the way that these tracks create and play with emotions really puts it a cut above many other albums within this bracket of musical style. It’s a diverse album and really kept us engaged throughout and we hope the wait for new music isn’t TOO long.
