Arcaeon – Balance

Every new year brings with it a fresh crop of bands ready to take their respective genres by storm, among the first of 2018 is technical metalcore outfit Arcaeon, with their debut EP ‘Balance’. Hailing from Reading and London, this five-piece trade in the complex riffing and warm melodies synonymous with their influences, the likes […]

Every new year brings with it a fresh crop of bands ready to take their respective genres by storm, among the first of 2018 is technical metalcore outfit Arcaeon, with their debut EP ‘Balance’. Hailing from Reading and London, this five-piece trade in the complex riffing and warm melodies synonymous with their influences, the likes of SikTh and Tesseract to name just a couple.

A peaceful introduction eases the listener in before opening track ‘Endeavour’ becomes awash with frantic riffs and low-tuned guitar. When clean vocals arrive they’re accompanied by the atmospheric synths that have populated much of this genre over the past few years. Although there’s some variation in ingredients, from the gut punch of ‘Fade’ to the soaring chorus of ‘Dyaxis‘, Arcaeon‘s recipe is not a wholly original one.

An extended outro to ‘Mind’s Eye’ feels like an unnecessary disruption to the release’s already spacious pacing. It is, however, emblematic of the band’s confidence and vocalist William Alex Young is particularly unafraid to experiment. Nowhere is this more evident than on closing track ‘Legacies’, in which he adopts an almost hip-hop flow in order to growl over noodling guitar, the end result is guaranteed to get even the biggest of chin-strokers nodding their head.

‘Balance‘ is the work of a young band confident in their ability, and so they should be, but yet to carve out their identity in a crowded scene. With a vocalist this versatile and band members so proficient a few more years on the road should do the trick.

Brad Thorne

January 30, 2018

Massive nerd. Lover of music, film, books, comics and caffeine.

@Brad_Thorne

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