Review: “E” by The Acacia Strain

One or two of you may have noticed the absence of the news about the new twin track offering from The Acacia Strain appearing yesterday on the feed. No, we’ve not fallen out of love with the Chicopee, Massachusetts Deathcore quintet, far from it. Instead we decided to hold back for a day so we could review the release and do it some justice. 28th February saw the release of “D“, a twin track, double A side vinyl that has “Seeing God” which features a guest vocal from Aaron Herd of Jesus Piece fame. 21 days later and we’re back with a second twin track, double A side vinyl that also has a guest appearance, this time from Mortality Rate frontwoman Jess Nyx. Vocalist Vincent Bennett commented: “I’ve been a fan of Jess since Judiciary introduced me to her voice, and I’m extremely happy to have her on a song. Solace, serenity — enter the lucid dream. The second chapter is here. We descend further and further into our own undoing.

If you’re going to make a record, there is no sense in doing things by halves and “Solace And Serenity” is a mid tempo chugger of a track with a swirling dark underbelly of sinister atmosphere that allows frontman Vincent Bennett to spill his guts like he’s been on a bad acid nausea trip. The lyrics are a moment of clarity in about the slow decay of humanity that are accompanied by slab after slab of rhythmic pounding riffs from Tom “The Hammer” Smith and Devin Shidaker with just a hint of programming. It could be an outtake from the recently released full length “It Comes In Waves“, it’s that good. “The Lucid Dream” with it’s aforementioned guest appearance ups the tempo with some rapid fire bursts from sticksman Kevin Boutot as The Acacia Strain go full throttle heavy end Metallic Hardcore. Nyx and Bennett get equal opportunity to deliver some throat shredding lyrics with Bennett’s deeper throaty roars backing Nyx higher pitched tones to gloriously savage perfection. It evolks memories of the likes of “Seaward” from the much loved “Continent” and so we say this – long may this series of releases from The Acacia Strain continue because it’s full of intrigue and wonder [8/10]

Track listing

  1. Solace And Serenity
  2. The Lucid Dream (ft. Jess Nyx of Mortality Rate)

E” by The Acacia Strain is available for vinyl pre-order here.

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