 
Beasty Welsh 5 piece metal crew Anterior have
resurrected from the grave with their second album
“Echoes of the Fallen”. I’ve
followed the band since they first started kicking
around the scene with their debut album “This
Age of Silence” and finally caught them
live for the first time on the All That Remains
2009 UK tour; impressive technical metal is what
the band thrive on, impressive guitar work, deep
screaming vocals and some quick technical drumming
give for 45 minutes of intense head banging sessions.
Now begins the time of many bands downfall after
the first album is loved by so many the second
has a damn lot of expectations to live up to and
somebody is going to be disappointed one way or
another.
With this album it’s not about catchy vocal
lines or memorable lyrics; I’ve listened
to it a couple of times now and I’m only
just starting to catch onto some of the choruses,
what it is about is aggression, power and technical
riffs. “To Live Not Remain” builds
up from the long winded intro picking up the pace
and finally setting it off, passes through a skilful
guitar solo that isn’t quick for the sake
of it before calming down for a very definite
conclusion. “Blood in the Throne Room”
has the same standard structure but instead of
the long winded intro instead kicks straight in
with the high octane pace and a beast of a guitar
solo.
The thing with the choruses that Anterior write
is that after a verse of full on face breaking
speeds and dirty riffs they tone it back and have
a steady beat with a nice riff flowing over the
top. It’s calm yet aggressive and it’s
wonderful, more of a short break from the chaos
that ensues I feel.“Tyranny” is possibly
my favourite song from the album; it has everything
you could want from a metal track, beasty riff,
fast heavy drumming, section for fist pumping
and a kick in at the end to absolutely lose your
mind to. To be honest every song on the album
is great, they’re all written in the same
style with the same structure it’s just
that some are just better than others which is
just what it comes down to.
“Of Gods and Men” and “By Horror
Haunted” are 2 of the more addictive ones
amongst others I’ve mentioned, really well
written tracks and to be honest I’ve really
said it all; if you like metal you should like
this, whether your thing is technicality or just
flat out heavy music this is just the thing for
you. There are bands like Unearth, Lamb of God
and especiallyPeriphery who really dominate technical
music but Anterior aren’t as full on. They
aren’t competing to be the most technical
or original in the world today, they are just
a group of talented musicians that write metal
music. The band do however need to find a balance
because on the first album they had tracks that
have stuck in my head for years now where the
rest were songs I would skip, there are no tracks
I would skip here but I doubt I’ll be singing
them to myself in the shower.
4/5
Review by James Webb
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