Release Day roundup: 2/2/24

Top Picks

Persefone – Lingua Ignota: Part I (progressive metal)

You say Spiritual Migration (2013), I say Aathma (2017). Something we can hopefully both agree on though is that Persefone's previous outing, Metanoia (2022), came and went without much fanfare or staying power, to the extent that I had completely forgotten it existed until Lingua Ignota was announced—something which its three or so 5-minute+ instrumental interludes it contains might have something to do with. Lingua Ignota, on the other hand, is a much more concise and impactful package that is sure to stick with fans of the band and probably make them a whole bunch of new ones as well.

Lingua Ignota sees the addition of Eternal Storm vocalist Daniel R. Flys and keyboardist Miguel Espinosa, and with them a healthy dose of Gojira-esque heft and groove. The added instrumental heaviness, combined with Flys' gruffer vocal delivery makes for a far more immediate and forceful offering than the Andorran metal institution have delivered in the past, but all of that would mean nothing if they didn't have the songs to back it up. Thankfully, Lingua Ignota, is also a much more concentrated affair than Aathma's previous records, both by virtue of its mini-album format and the more direct nature of its compositions.

Perhaps counterintuitively, Lingua Ignota is also a more fulfilling affair than Persefone's previous records as well. The band's trademark expansiveness and technical flare are still very much in play. The title-track for example sees Psycroptic-style tech-riffing combined with epic new-age affirmations. However, these aspects are also made more digestible via their compressed presentation. In addition to the sub-half-hour runtime, the six songs are also perfectly sequenced. Each perfectly flows into the next to form something of a combined whole, without any individual component ever overstaying its welcome, as even the best Persefone compositions have had a tendency to do in the past.

Don't let its smaller stature deceive you. Lingua Ignota is a phenomenal record that sits comfortably alongside (and often outclasses) Persefone's best. There's no word on Part 2 yet, but if they get it out in time and it's anywhere near as good as this, we could be looking at a genuine album(s) of the year contender.

Enterprise Earth – Death: An Anthology (progressive tech-deathcore)

Washington deathcore crew Enterprise Earth are also back this week—following one of the wildest line-up shifts in history—armed with Aethere vocalist Travis Worland and delivering the best and most ambitious music of their career and possibly even the genre itself.

2022's The Chosen was already a huge step up for the heavily touted band, but Death is in a whole different league entirely. The album's various singles have suggested a much more instrumentally involved and ambitious record than Enterprise Earth have delivered previously, but even they didn't quite prepare me for just how intense and intricate Death truly is. Following the build-up of "Abyss", the album kicks off with a mathcore blast, with what follows often coming off as a thrash-infused version of Nothing-era Meshuggah or more recent After the Burial albums, or even that recent Nightmarer album, if it had (a lot) more going on. "Casket of Silence" alone, for example, begins by more or less lifts the acoustic intro to Ghost's "Cirice" before launching into something more fin line with modern-era Sylosis and ultimately evolving into something more akin to The Black Dahlia Murder gone full prog, or the missing link between the last two Job for a Cowboy records. The individual songs aren't always as distinguishable or tightly composed as they could be, but the musicianship is always dazzling, especially on instrumental track "Accelerated Demise" wherein guitarist Gabe Mangold and bassist (not that) Dakota Johnson are allowed to fully let rip, trading sick leads back and forth between one another, ending with a cheeky shout out to Van Halen. Worland is also a more diverse and forceful vocalist than his predecessor, perfectly complimenting the added vigor of his new comrades.

The album isn't a complete home run, however. Like The Chosen, Death is way too long and, although it doesn't contain anything particularly sub-par, there's plenty that could be cut, such as ill-fitting nu-goth number "I, Divine" or even one of the better, more extreme offerings which do get a bit redundant after a while—ominous eerie openings and colossal climactic drops largely losing their effect after the fifth or sixth time they're deployed. The record is also sub-optimally sequenced, it's the second half of the record that really shines, and it often feels like a series of resets and repetitions that don't allow the momentum to properly build up.* This is particularly noticeable come ravenous closer "Curse of Flesh" featuring Trivium's Matt Heafy, which is one of the more distinct and forceful outings, but also feels rather superfluous and tacked on following "Blood and Teeth" before it, which begins as an almost Sleep Token-esque ballad, before building to a cataclysmic, Kardashev-style breakdown that feels like a fairly natural end to proceedings. Alternatively, a minute or so could have probably been shaved off many of the album’s often 6–7-minute-long compositions, making for a no less exhilarating, albeit likely less exhausting listening experience.

I concluded my previous review of The Chosen by comparing it to the simultaneously released fourth record by fellow genre-bending prog-deathcore crew Shadow of Intent (whose vocalist Ben Duerr also shows up here), writing that "if this is [Enterprise Earth's] Melancholy, I can’t wait to see what their Elegy has in store". They've delivered on that promise and then some, and while Death may not be perfect it's made all the more exciting by the refinements hopefully to come. I can't wait to hear their Lingua Ignota.

*Suggested alternative sequencing: "Malevolent Force", "The Reaper's Servant", "King of Ruination", "Casket of Rust", "Spineless", "Accelerated Demise", "Abyss", "Face of Fear", "I, Divine", "Curse of Flesh", "Blood and Teeth".