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| Artwork by Pär Olofsson |
If you were teaching a university course on history and influence in modern metal, you could easily devote a class session to Antiverse's Cosmic Horror. At it's heart, this is modern, thrashy metal (or deathy thrash metal) that's proud to show off its influence without being derivative.
The intro track features some tasty guitar harmonies, giving us some classic metal/NWOBHM influence right off the bat. The vocals are typically hardcore-tinged death growls, with a few black metal rasps and, awesomely, Rob Halford-isms mixed in. Check out those high cleans in "Bethlem" and "The Beast of Bray Road"! "The Commutator" has an old school Metallica-inspired riff that, if we're honest with ourselves, we're never actually going to hear from Metallica again. As someone who is tragically old, it's heartening to hear someone take that influence and make modern metal with it.
If you can't tell from the cover art and album title, Antiverse does a lot of sci-fi and horror-themed songs. We get spores from outer space ("The Expressionless") and wormholes ("Aurora"), as well as "Apex Predator," which puts me firmly in mind of the move Species. (As a side note, Natasha Henstridge-core should be a metal subgenre. Get on that, fledgling metal bands!). Of course, if Antiverse were just a sci-fi-themed nostalgia act, rewriting the hits of yesteryear, there wouldn't be much to get excited about. Luckily that's not the case. The influences are clear, but Antiverse melds them together into a distinct sound of their own.
[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]