Review: “Hades” by Clairvoyance

The debut EP from Milan Italy based Progressive Metalcore collective Clairvoyance has been some two years in the making, the band forming immediately prior to the Great Plague. They didn’t let thet stop them however and relieved themselves to an unsuspecting World via social media in the October before following up with first single “Roots” in November 2020. That one has been cut adrift as stand alone with the band opting to keep their debut EP at just over 17 minutes, a short, sharp electric shock to the soul that no one saw coming…

While in their photographs they look innocent, Clairvoyance have cleverly masked a split personality and like Gremlins come to life when you feed them after midnight. A blitzkrieg of DJent fuelled riffs and tight percussive battery open the floor for “Hades“, a bold and bombastic statement piece with brutal extinction level event Deathcore uncleans from vocalist Davide De Marco who somehow manages to contrast them with a few angelic clean moments as well. A kick in the guts for anyone who is listening to the record for the first time, it’s a statement of intent wrapped in high quality studio recorded music with high grade musicianship. The bark and bite of  “Halo” incorporates a bit more melody with the band in similar territory to Novelists during some of those moments, the polyrhythmic onslaught and tapping sections absolutely sublime. Arena sized clean vocal moments are intriguing as well as stunning in the vicious context of the heavier dynamic, possibly not enough on their own to give the band a broader appeal but certainly impressive enough to come close. Flipping the script entirely, “Heretic” simplifies the riffs, adds some background programming and goes more melodic with more clean vocals, pushing the uncleans to the background. Something that pays off in the context of the song as the unclean verse and face melting solo hit that much harder, it might not be a trick that they can repeat too often without sounding like a cliché. For 99.9% of the record you’d struggle to place the bands point of origin with no accenting what so ever but there are a couple of odd word moments which give it away. The second, more technical solo is incredible before the synth heavy “Abysmal” gives us a tsunami of Modern Metalcore to flood the surroundings. The stuccato riff infestations are huge, the drums from Norman Ceriotti an artillery shelling and the final product will leave you breathless [8/10]

Track Listing

  1. Hades
  2. Halo
  3. Heretic
  4. Abysmal

Hades” by Clairvoyance is out now. You can find it everywhere you would expect it to be and a few places you wouldn’t.

 

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