Allegaeon - Proponent for Sentience
2016
Melodic / Technical Death Metal
Metal Blade Records
Any metal album that samples Stephen Hawking is okay in my book. Fortunately, there is so much more to admire on Allegaeon’s fourth album of crushing and powerful melodic death metal. New vocalist Riley McShane acquaints himself nicely, and his thick, guttural growl sounds positively demonic on tracks such as Of Mind and Matrix and the album standout All Hail Science. There are thrash and power metal elements sprinkled throughout, and the guitar riffs and leads are uniformly stellar. The pacing is severely hurt by the extended flamenco-style guitar outro to Gray Matter Mechanics which, while pleasant enough on its own, should probably have come much later into the album. It’s a small nitpick though, as the rest of the album is chocked full of tasty riffs and melodies to satiate any metalhead. Bonus points for the stellar cover of Rush’s Subdivisions.
