Fans of good death metal just have to check out The Modern Age Slavery. The Italian band will play a unique blend of death metal and deathcore have just delivered Stygian, their first album in four years. It is also an album that showcases an amazing sound by a band that the world needs to know about.
The slow intro titled ‘Prelude To An Evolution’ couldn’t have been better titled as the album itself is an evolution of death metal that we haven’t seen in a long time… as you listen to the album that evolution of sound that is sweeping across Europe at the moment has never been more obvious. The drumming by Fede feels almost industrial on ‘The Reprisal Within’ a track that then delivers the brilliant vocals of Box, while the slowed down moments of the track show a band with real skill.
Box’s vocals on ‘Miles Apart’ at times feel like war cries while the very atmospheric ‘The Theory Of Shadows’ is clearly one of the best tracks on the album. With spoken growls acting as an amazing intro and Excorcist style piano playing in parts, this is a track that is going to win over a lot of people and have them calling The Modern Age Slavery as one of the finds of 2017.
‘The Place We Call Home’ again feels like a war anthem while it is also the track that really sees the amazing dual guitar work of Ludo and Cocco really come to the fore. That same brilliant guitar playing is very evident in the intro to ‘A Stygian Tide’ which just builds and builds thanks to the Gothic choir in the background.
Having two guitarists really pays off for The Modern Age Slavery with the screaming guitar sound on ‘The Hollow Men’ while the spoken growls on ‘Regression Through Unlearning’ again sees the experimental side of the band shine through. One of the highlights of Stygian, however, is the finale – a cover of Pantera’s ‘Sandblasted Skin’ which sees all of The Modern Age Slavery’s strengths on show as they completely own the song.
Stygian is an amazing album that is set to expose the brilliance of The Modern Age Slavery to the world. The new wave death metal sound has never sounded better as this Italian band releases an album that is going to have fans of the genre labelling them legends.
