New Wave Of British Heavy Metal, Classic and Progressive Rock

Altesia: Embryo Review

Altesia Embryo ReviewEmbryo is Altesia’s second album and a follow-up top their marvellous debut Paragon Circus (review here).

I enjoyed Paragon Circus so much that I ordered Embryo from their Bandcamp page and I’m more than pleased to say it’s equally a first class progressive rock/metal album as the debut.

Embryo has it all. Majestic in scale, scope, heavy, progressive, melodic, symphonic and in places a bit funky and a bit jazzy. The song writing is complex, compelling and accessible.

The musicianship quite remarkable with the ability to effortlessly and seamlessly switch between styles. Stunning stuff indeed.

The opener – Micromegas – is a glorious mixture of acoustic and piano with a gentle melodic delivery to whet the appetite before Mouth of the Sky announces itself with a monster opening rifferama and battering drums expanding in to a powerful song with some blistering guitar work to boot.

The Remedial Sentence twists and turns bringing in some of those jazz-based moves and it works very well in the context of the song.

Sleep Paralysis another progressive, heavy, punchy number with all sorts going on. Then we have A Liar’s Oath – quite a lush song with melody amongst the prog. Have a listen:

Then the proper tour de force. The twenty minute multi-part epic of Exit Initia. Has to be heard to be believed what Altesia have with this one.

Words cannot describe what to expect – other than perhaps a sweeping, bombastic suite of music which has so much going on and so many changes in pace, style and delivery it’s beyond jaw-dropping.

Two albums in and both of them spectacular. Surely with such a high standard given on both, Altesia must be on the way towards to the top of the progressive metal tree.

Please do take a look at Embryo. Available from Altesia’s Bandcamp page:
https://altesia.bandcamp.com/album/embryo

And check out Paragon Circus whilst you’re there.