Reviews: Artificial Language, Scavenger, Thornbridge, Ashen Reach (Reviews By Matt Bladen)

Artificial Language - Distant Glow EP (Self Released)

Prog, specifically modern prog, is probably one of the most popular genres around at the moment. Specifically the bands born out of djent, just look at the kind of crowds Tesseract, Haken and Leprous get and you’ll see that there seems to be a cross genre appeal that never quite happened with the classic prog sounds. A lot of it is due to the often impassioned vocals and massive choruses, grooves/breakdowns taken from metalcore and a technical expertise that never overshadows the song itself. 

Californians Artificial Language follow where the bands mentioned above lead, with this third release Distant Glow. It’s five track EP but there’s more musical variation here than a playlist on shuffle, just don’t expect any of the music to be simplistic. Melodic, evocative and inventive but not simple. From the palm muted stop start opening of Two Faced Star, it’s pretty obvious that Artificial Language are virtuosos, as thick riffs are put against fluid arpeggios, contrasting but colluding to establish what is to come. 

It’s sort of Haken but fronted by Tool’s Maynard, Shay Lewis’s vocals having the insistent power as prog’s favourite vintner, but there’s no throbbing, repeating thrum on this record, it’s bright and breezy melodic prog, the lead guitars of Charlie Robbins having the harmonic flow of Plini or Unprocessed joined by the keys of Jonathon Simpson as the two ‘lead’ instruments for tracks such as Stranded. 

There’s a conceptual element to this EP, which has touches of Dune, but it’s not too heavy that the songs don’t stand by themselves, House Of Hoarded Sands displaying the chops of Victor Corral’s rhythm playing and Josh Riojas’ jazz basslines as the offbeat drumming from Jeron Schapansky combines it all together on the most ‘prog’ song on the record. 

With their last release being 2019, there’s been a significant gap between then and now, it seems that Artificial Language have used the time to write their most accomplished music yet, fine tuning it into the excellent noises of Distant Glow. 8/10

Scavenger - Beyond The Bells (No Remorse Records)

Another band who started in the 80's but were reborn recently. Belgian band Scavenger were a staple of the underground scene, playing NWOBHM, speed metal and proto thrash before splitting. In 2018 they reformed with a new line up taking to the stages again, with COVID came the calls for new material and a single in 2020 served as the precursor for Beyond The Bells.

Recorded with the current version of the band but fully endorsed by the original members Scavenger pick right up where they left off unleashing speed metal that fans of Priest, Exciter and Warlock will love. Bleeding into their rambunctious old school speed approach is some keen eared hard rock that longs to come out of the radio, so there's a balance to things that has Tim and Kevin, shredding up a storm when the gas pedal is stepped on but able to get choppy and loose when Vincent's bass and Gabriel's drums keep the rhythms bouncing with rock n roll.

Many bands of this style fall down with the vocals but Tine Lucifera's voice is versatile enough to do both styles, similar in many ways to Doro Pesch. From Black Witchery to Crystal Light, the return of Scavenger should be savoured, included too are the two songs on the Backsider single on the CD version so it makes Beyond The Bells worth the wait for speed metal fans. 7/10

Thornbridge - Daydream Illusion (Massacre Records)

Thornbridge take a more magical turn on their third album Daydream Illusion, reducing the heaviness, adding some cleaner vocals and more melodies. The founders Jörg "Mo" Naneder (vocals, acoustic guitars, bass, piano, keyboards) and Patrick "Pat" Rogalski (lead/rhythm guitars) again write all the songs and play their fair share of the instruments adding Nils Kreul on drums in the studio to create power metal that is very deep in the Teutonic vein. It's their first concept album and tells the tale of a boy trying to save his dream world from the horrors of a Victorian era asylum.

So the storyline is Suckerpunch meets Avantasia, while the music is very similar to Orden Ogan, whose Sebastian "Seeb" Levermann mixes/masters the record, to sound very cinematic on tracks such as the galloping I Am The Storm. It's prime German power metal that any fans of Orden Ogan, Blind Guardian (Island Of My Memories) and Gamma Ray will definitely enjoy, big chorus choirs, frantic drumming and twin axe harmonies that come on every song, as the story is told. They even flex their song writing talents with a ballad for the first time, positioning themselves towards the future with a broader appeal than just heavy power metal, Thornbridge may have found their sound going forward. 8/10

Ashen Reach - The Fear (Self Released)

Liverpool heavies Ashen Reach follow up their 2020 debut Homecoming with a new EP entitled The Fear. Comprised of Kyle Martyn Stanley (vocals), Paddy Cummins (guitar/vocals), Jess Stanley (drums) and Joe O'Sullivan (guitar), the foursome play modern metal with catchy choruses which has seen them taking the stage at events such as Planet Rockstock and beyond. 

Their music is hard hitting, merging rock accessibility, atmospherics and crushing guitar riffs like Alter Bridge (musically) and Disturbed (vocally) in their primes but the EP is about change and the modern metal/djent/metalcore influences are that change. D1v1de getting the grooves going against electronic twitches, as Neophobia letting the metalcore really take hold with a breakdown towards the end. What the Planet Rock crowd will think of this I'm not sure but there's still a lot of melody here just the metal is heavier. 

If this EP points towards where Ashen Reach will be going on future releases then there's lots in store. 7/10