Anterior – Echoes of The Fallen

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Anterior are one of those bands who you can quite easily blink and miss. Some of the reason for this, bluntly speaking, is that Anterior’s style of music doesn’t allow for them to stand out amongst the crowd. They are yet another band playing a style stuck on the borders of melodeath, metalcore and modern US metal, leaning closer to the American sounds than they do the European – despite being Welsh. Still, what is noticeable about Anterior is their generally decent songwriting skills, as well as their stunning dual-lead guitar techniques that make the likes of Children of Bodom look mundane. Echoes of The Fallen doesn’t really add anything to the mix that debut This Age of Silence didn’t already have, albeit perhaps being marginally more consistent. It is indeed more of the same – plenty of great riffing, a high quality production and everything that is required to make a serviceable metal record. The lead guitar parts are at times staggering (the harmonizing dual-solo on Of Gods And Men is utterly breath-taking), which is really Anterior’s biggest selling point. Everything else is ticking the modern metalcore checklist, chugging guitars, a few breakdowns, positive and uplifting melodies, etc. It’s all in working order, there’s nothing new being added, but you know what you’re going to get. It would be nice if Anterior would do something that elevated them a bit further – they clearly have the technical capacity to do something amazing, they just need to the artistic creativity to really break out.

Written by James Donovan
More: Albums, Death Metal, Hardcore/Metalcore, Quick.Play Reviews, Anterior