Shadow of Intent - Melancholy (2019)^{Release ID: 11937}

Shadow of Intent made a couple albums based on their favorite video game franchise Halo. After that, with another new lineup, Ben Duerr and Chris Wiseman have made a separate concept album about mass suicides at the hands of a demonic goddess. So dark, so depressing, yet... so intriguing!

Until at least 5 years ago, I was never really into deathcore. At first I thought it was like standard death metal with metalcore breakdowns. The kind of deathcore I prefer is when the genre goes progressive and symphonic. I only just discovered this band a couple years ago, and eventually it has managed to grow on me. Whether or not you have heard this band before, this symphonic melodic deathcore offering will impress the sh*t out of you and get you headbanging throughout these 52 minutes of darkness.

The title opener shall already get you hooked in the first minute, as epic strings rise into metal heaviness to begin this stylistic journey. The melody is so addictive in this, you guessed it, melancholic might. And more of this heavy speed awaits as the album progresses. The beastly "Gravesinger" is a true highlight. Seems like Shadow of Intent took Betraying the Martyrs' earlier sound to a much darker level alongside some classical elements of Bach and Beethoven mixed with some of the most brutal metal subgenres out there. This might also include some Dimmu Borgir-like symphonic black metal in the middle. And the outro with neoclassical soloing before a symphonic closure is just EPIC. The Trevor Strnad (The Black Dahlia Murder)-featured "Barren and Breathless Macrocosm" practically surpasses the previous track. Insane drumming and vocals here! The riffing reminds of early Whitechapel, especially during the cinematic ending. RIP Trevor... "Underneath A Sullen Moon" was the first single to drop, a year before the rest of the album. The Dimmu Borgir influences are taken further while throwing back to the technicality of Primordial. So dark and crushing!

Then we have the brooding "Oudenophobia". And after that, "Embracing Nocturnal Damnation". 3 dark 9-letter words that fit so well together. Just like how the sounds of Eternal Tears of Sorrow, Fleshgod Apocalypse, and The Browning (without the electronic elements) all fit together like a glove in this track. When you have songs like "Dirge of the Void" that blast through in a short 3 minutes, there's no way you'll ever be consumed by boredom. As always, the harsh vocals by Ben Duerr and the clean vocals of Chris Wiseman duel with each other at ease. Chris' cleanly sung chorus totally brush aside his atrocious attempt at that in the Primordial album.

"Chthonic Odyssey" spices up the band's symphonic melodic deathcore sound with the blackened elements of Chthonic and a bit of djent from Tesseract. "The Dreaded Mystic Abyss" is a long instrumental epic, a mind-blowing monster that has hit me the hardest in my over a decade of listening to metal. I guess this could be what the DOOM soundtrack would sound like if Angel Vivaldi teamed up with Mick Gordon. 10 minutes of atmospheric, epic, and brutal genius! The album doesn't end there though, making way for one more track, "Malediction". It is a monumental gem, one of the best I've heard from this band and genre. I really am torn between whether this is the perfect ending for the album or that long instrumental epic.

Throughout the past 5 years before this review, albums like Make Them Suffer's Neverbloom and Lorna Shore's Pain Remains have been my go-to albums for symphonic deathcore. In comes Shadow of Intent's Melancholy, an epic riff-tastic melodic deathcore album to please any metalhead. I just found a new best album of 2019!

Favorites: "Gravesinger", "Barren and Breathless Macrocosm", "Dirge of the Void", "The Dreaded Mystic Abyss", "Malediction"