INTER ARMA: New Heaven

By and large I can listen to the first couple of tracks on an album, and start to solidify an opinion on the band, the style of music they play, and ultimately form a starting point for an album review. However, in the case of New Heaven by INTER ARMA, this would be a massive mistake. The album covers such a wide spread of sounds and styles that I needed to listen to the whole thing a few times before I could really crystalise what I wanted to say about the release.

The album opens with the title track "New Heaven" which is a dissonant, cavernous death metal track. Technical, bludgeoning, and foreboding, this track is a really good example of where modern extreme metal seems to be heading, albeit a stylistic anomaly on the album.

The next two tracks "Violet Seizures" & "Desolation's Harp" are still extreme metal, but move away from the dissonant death into more of an atmospheric realm, with less guttural vocals. The extreme vocals are now more on the black side of the spectrum than the style employed on track one. Quite a few modern extreme metal acts seem to blend elements of black and death metal in a really cohesive manner, and at this stage of the release this is the view I’m forming when it comes to INTER ARMA. It's still too early to make a true judgement on what these guys are doing.

Then we get "Endless Grey". A fantastic, and concise instrumental piece employing twin lead guitars, playing a series of melodic guitar motifs in satisfying harmony. I find this track to be really enjoyable. Random observation - I’m quite sure it employs the same chord progression as Marillion’s track ‘Blind Curve’- perhaps that’s why I enjoy it so much!

This track seems to be a turning point, or a dividing line in the release. Because from here on the last 4 tracks seem to bring some different flavours into the mix.

Initially, the second half of the album seemed to lack some cohesion, but equally there is an appeal to the variation in style and approach that we get from track to track. The clean vocal style used at times, especially during this 2nd half of the album, sounds to my ears like a mix of Type O Negative and Nick Cave. The closing track is a very mellow one; "Forest Service Road Blues". It’s a slightly non-typical way to close out what is otherwise a very heavy album, but I like the choice.

All in all, this is a very enjoyable release. Whilst the range of stylistic variation can seem a little ‘scatter gun’ at times, repeat listens and some time to breathe allowed me to see this as a positive. It's not the perfect record, but it's one of my favourites of the year to date.

Track Listing
1. New Heaven
2. Violet Seizures
3. Desolation's Harp
4. Endless Grey
5. Gardens in the Dark
6. The Children the Bombs Overlooked
7. Concrete Cliffs
8. Forest Service Road Blues

Added: May 22nd 2024
Reviewer: Chris Reid
Score:
Related Link: Band @ Bandcamp
Hits: 498
Language: english

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