Fallujah – Empyrean – Album review

12th September 2022 0 By George Simpson

I’m not gonna lie, progressive death metal is a new genre for me. Having always found straight forward death metal a bit too one dimensional for my tastes, I was more than a little curious about what sort of effect adding a prog influence into the mix would have. And I have to admit to being very pleasantly surprised.

Fallujah are a new band to me. Formed in 2007, Empyrean is their fifth album, and their first since 2019’s Undying Light. Lead guitarist Scott Carstairs and drummer Andrew Baird have been with the band since the start, while this album is the first to feature Kyle Schaefer on lead vocals and bassist Evan Brewer.

So what’s the album like? It’s a tour de force of rampaging death metal mixed with ambient flourishes that sound cohesive enough to never be jarring. Throughout the album, you’re never totally sure where any particular song is going to take you next. However, as a result, this keeps you, the listener, on your toes throughout. It must be said that i’m listening to this album as much more of a prog fan than a death metal one.

Recent single Radiant Ascension is a great example of the blending of different influences. A rampaging riff and gutteral vocals blends effortlessly with more melodic passages featuring guest vocalist Tori Letzler, and back again. The technical precision with which they deliver these tracks is quite something, when you consider that this is the first outing for half of the line up.

The prog influence comes to the fore on recent single Embrace Oblivion. Here the death to prog ratio is the most even of any point during the album. Sweeping ambient melodic sections intersperse the thunderous rifferama to majestic effect. The blend is delivered effortlessly and they are clearly equally at home in either camp as a result.

Even though much of the album is more death metal than prog, there is much to be admired in the precise way they deliver a brutal audio onslaught on the listener when they’re in full flight. Indeed, Soulbreaker sounds a bit like Slayer‘s War Ensemble being played too fast but delivered with every bit as much intensity as it. But just when you think they will take you on a breakneck joyride to the albums’ conclusion, they once again give you a surprise or two. Near seven minute instrumental Celestial Resonance cranks the prog factor up to the max. It intertwines heavy riffing with glorious atmospheric sections that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Floyd or Genesis album.

Closer Artifacts ends things on a high point for me. Once again, it features an unpredictable song structure, as it takes left turn after left turn as it progresses epically through it’s epic seven and a half minute duration. Indeed, it saves a final curve ball for it’s closing minute when it ambient keyboards suddenly appear to take us to a calm conclusion. To my ears this is the best track on offer here, and features them at their most proggy.

Throughout the album they deliver roaring death metal combined with proggy melodies on what is a surprisingly listenable album. Like I said at the start, I’m not the hugest fan of death metal, but found this a really enjoyable listen, something I wasn’t expecting. It manages to do something I didn’t think was possible. It made me listen to a death metal album start to finish, but also leave me wanting more. If you’re like me and have shied away from this genre in the past, open your ears and mind and prepare to be very pleasantly surprised.

Score: 8/10