ALLEGAEON – Formshifter

Metal Blade – Out Now.

Allegaeon is a fairly young modern Death Metal outfit that has already enjoyed a fair share of exposure in music-related media since its inception back in 2008. Signed by legendary Metal Blade records on the strength of a 4 track EP, the quartet began developing their style and in 2010 released their debut effort “Fragments Of Form And Function”, an album which helped strengthen the bond between label and band.

Two years on, and with their line up still intact, Allegaeon entered Lambesis Studios in order to start working on ideas which developed into the ten compositions that are featured on their second full length album “Formshifter”.

“Formshifter” is a ‘difficult-to-access’ album. Why? Because the same elements that can be praised are, at other times, also the album’s biggest downfall. Let me be more specific here. In Greg Burgess the band has a classically train guitarist whose grandiose ideas, both with regards lead solos and acoustic interludes. These are quite spectacular on a personal level but on a collective one often end up ‘suffocating’ the remaining instruments and creating the feel of both a lack of balance and orientation.

Furthermore, once you have heard half the album you realise that the band’s approach to song writing is so consistent that you start to feel like you are listening to the same song over and over again! On a more positive note, the album has been treated with a very crisp and dynamic sound, the riffs are meaty and bring together the two different but equally enjoyable musical universes of Death (Behemoth/Nile) and modern Thrash (Nevermore) Metal while every single chorus and refrain features a fairly catchy tune.

The album kicks off in a truly dynamic fashion with “Behold (God I Am)”, a song filled with groovy low chorded guitars, Behemoth style vocals and acoustic guitar passages of oriental feel. In “Tartessos: The Hidden Xenocryst” Greg Burgess unleashes his sheer talent on the six string, at times reminiscent of Dave Mustaine (Megadeth) but by the time “A Path Disclosed” is introduced the album’s equilibrium has been well and truly disturbed.

In the few instances where this guitarist’s individual urges are successfully harnessed, such as on the seven minute “Twelve – Vals For The Legions”, the end result is pretty outstanding but follow-up tracks such as “Iconic Images”, “Timeline Dissonance” and “Formshifter” find the band losing that precious momentum once again, leaving the acoustic themes of the closing piece “Secrets Of The Sequence” to offer some late consolation to the listener.

There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that these lads are capable of achieving great things together and it is only really a matter of time before they do, providing, of course, that they are both willing and patient enough. While “Formshifter” is quite an uplifting and entertaining collection of songs, to me it primarily comes across as a clear case of unfulfilled potential.

I really hope that these guys keep on evolving as musicians and work towards achieving better unity as a group and I am looking forward to listening to more music from them in the years to come, but for the time being…

John Stefanis

Rating: ***1/2 (3.5/5.0)

Featured Artist: JOSH TAERK

Since early 2020 Josh has been entertaining us with exclusive monthly live sessions, streamed via Facebook.

Next session: Sunday 19 January

Check out videos here: https://www.facebook.com/getreadytorockradio

David Randall presents a weekly show on Get Ready to ROCK! Radio, Sundays at 22:00 GMT, repeated on Mondays and Fridays), when he invites listeners to ‘Assume The Position’. The show signposts forthcoming gigs and tours and latest additions at getreadytorock.com. First broadcast on 1 December 2024.

UK Blues Broadcaster of the Year (2020 and 2021 Finalist) Pete Feenstra presents his weekly Rock & Blues Show on Tuesday at 19:00 GMT as part of a five hour blues rock marathon “Tuesday is Bluesday at GRTR!”. The show is repeated on Wednesdays at 22:00, Fridays at 20:00). This show was first broadcast 3 December 2024.

How to Listen Live?

Click the programming image at the top of the page (top right of page if using desktop)

Listen via Windows Media Player. Click or tap here and “open file”
Listen via other media player (eg. VLC) Click or tap here and “open file”

Get Ready to ROCK! Radio is also in iTunes under Internet Radio/Classic Rock
Listen in via the Tunein app and search for “Get Ready to ROCK!” and save as favourite.

More information and links at our radio website where you can listen again to shows via the presenter pages: getreadytorockradio.com

Power Plays w/c 9 December 2024

In this sequence we play ‘The Best of 2024′ GRTR! reviewer selections

Featured Albums w/c 9 December 2024

09:00-12:00 The Best of 2024 (Melodic Rock)
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003-2024 (Melodic Hard Rock)
14:00-16:00 The Best of 2024 (Singer Songwriter)