Nosral Recordings has been that defining label that over the last two years have delivered a blend of fast and furious artists and bands that in their own way has been very refreshing when most smaller labels tend to keep with a certain few bands and don’t ever look at ever expanding their repertoire.
Light Unseen hailing from Central Texas, are bringing their brand of grind and death metal, adding to the ever increasing number of new bands that grace our listening ears. The group released their debut full-length album entitled Visions Of Archetype & Apocalypse back in November 2018. Even though quite a while ago, now we still feel that this creation needs to be covered.
“Imago Dei” opens the album with some old school death metal riffs and blast beats that create the foundation that you will see through the duration of the album. Keeping with old traditions the low and bombastic vocals, slower intentions with delivery mixes within the track very well, as the tempo changes quite regularly throughout which gives you hints of what can be expected with Light Unseen and their opening album as a band.
“I’ve Seen Them Fall” continues the trend with their old-school high energy with a strong shout that give them the edge needed to carry through. Elements of thrash are also detected as both genres go completely hand in hand it’s impossible to separate the two.
“Eve Of The Day Of Our Lord” starts off with a quite slow entrance that gives you that metalcore kind of feeling until they blast with a melodic rhythm section that breaks into more noise-orientated grind and obscure switching of guitars and drum beats. Having a sense of under-production towards the end, it still keeps with what was intended.
“My Tongue” with the fast pace and controlled structure of the band, has found this track more on the melodic steam train, which musically-wise is stunning but, it seemed at times they lose their way.
“Christus Invictus” I would have to say is their in-your-face brutal song with fast paced guitars and brutal vocals which to me is trying to show listeners that they can be intensely brutal and erratic. We all love a seriously brutal song but, it seemed that it was aimed at the grindcore crowd which is cool but, I myself couldn’t really get into it even though the intention was exactly that, keeping it brutal with low guttural growling vocals.
“Soldier Cosmic” comes into play soon afterwards as they revert back to the melodic death metal that has been existent throughout the album. Still keeping with the traditions of what has been created so far the song is much more balanced than the previous track.
“Heirarch” is the instrumental from the band which I enjoy quite a lot. With melodic undertones and a relaxed approach at the beginning, the track explodes into fast and in- your-face brutality that I find is the back bone of the song which gives you a sense of a job well done.
“Serpent Sold Soul” just like most tracks on the album which having kicking thrash sounds and old school riffs that carry the song throughout the entirety, not much is expected as they are keeping to the structure that has already been put into place.
“Corpus Christi” finally unleashes with a really top-notch track that I myself personally enjoyed, with again a slower approach musically but, sustaining the brutal and melodic overall spectrum that in my eyes is a well-thought-out format, and songwriting craftsmanship that closes out the album nicely. My overall opinion is that the debut from Light Unseen, even though they are solid in parts, they can be still quite repetitive and people may lose interest throughout the duration of the album. Quite a solid effort from the band, but give them some more time playing shows and developing their wares and they will become a super force in death metal.
Christian Sullivan 6/10
The Metal Onslaught Magazine
www.themetalonslaught.com