23rd October 2024

Review: “Embodiment” by Arrow Valley

“I produced nearly all of our music ‘in-house’ (quite literally in my house…) with the drums being recorded and mixed by some close friends of the band at Vault Studios in Kidderminster. It can certainly be a double-edged sword by self-producing your music. You’re able to spend a lot more time on the finer details and go at your own pace as there’s no time or money pressures that come with paying for studio time. I’m so pleased with the sound and vibe of the record.” ~ Luke Hatton, guitars

Originally starting out as a studio based song writing partnership between vocalist Arron Turner and guitarist Luke Hatton circa 2019, Arrow Valley went on to become a full band with a desire to perform live. Eventually joined by second guitarist Nicky Hughes, bassist Abbas Ali and drummer Mark Harris Bristow, as a duo the pair had already completed work on a debut EP titled “You’re Not Alone” which appeared in 2022. Widening the wealth of influences, the cemented line up began work on a sophomore record, raising the possibility of textured dynamics and sophisticated compositions with “Embodiment” after a pair of impressive advanced singles…

Scandinavian Melodic Metal roots and influences of bands like Evergrey shine through the black clouds with opening cut “By Design” as soaring clean vocals from Turner are met by warm synths and technical guitar work in a timeless fashion. A song of sublime quality of musicianship, it’s one of those songs that could have appeared at any point after 1980 with only modern production values putting an age on it. After glorious, arena filling sing-a-long choruses, like in Sixth Sense there is a dramatic plot twist in the final moments with an unexpected burst of harsh unclean vocals. Those threaten to rear their ugly head part way through follow up “Why“, as an introspective lyrical narrative and rich melodies brings American’s Creed to mind. Instead, the final third of the track finds the band increasing the intensity with another harsh vocal passage leads into some almost Nu-Metal guitar bounce before a lush guitar solo. The way in which the band move through the gears is as impressive as it is slick, never afraid to experiment and in all honesty they nail it every time. No doubt fans of the melodic elements will want them to drop the unclean vocal moments but the reality is that those little moments make this that much more listenable.

“Ode (I See You)” has flavours of bands like The Raven Age in the riff department, that Traditional Heavy Metal styling mixing well with the bands other inspirations. Here, soloing is kept tasteful rather than being flamboyant so as to let the soaring vocals and lyrical narrative do the talking and the result is something truly powerful. Soaked in rich synths “The Killing Fields” leans Melodic Death Metal, stylistically almost taking what Still Remains did with “The Serpent” as a template and making it their own. A glorious moment of nostalgia, its one of those songs will have you singing along from the first listen. More vocal variation helps push the boat out of the harbour but they are by no means dependent on the growls. “All Good Things” gives the record a melancholic closer, bright lead guitars enhancing another majestic display of musicianship. These cryptic writings from a band hard to pigeon hole, who seem capable of turning their calloused hands to anything and creating gold, should take them an awful long way… [8/10]

Track Listing