This is without doubt the most significant metal album since Gojira unveiled “Magma” nine years ago. It takes the template of metal and moves it all forward. Orbit Culture has long promised to do something, and here (five albums in) it is. It is deliciously heavy and delectably harsh, but it realises a good album isn’t made on screamed lyrics and pulsating riffs alone. This is a groundbreaking release that embraces the intensity and the claustrophobic nihilism but opens it all up in a way that lets light and air in. It challenges convention and presents metal that is simultaneously harsh and harmonious.

Whilst it is by far not a minimalistic or slight release, it does boil Metal down to its core function, and that is to be an explosion of euphoric energy. Every song is a hedonistic display of power. Proudly proficient in its intensity and in its anthemic quality. The tracks course with kinetic energy and bristle with hyperactive brilliance. It's meticulously crafted, and every single number is big in scope and ambition,

Its uniqueness and specialness do not come in its content (we have all heard high-tempo melodic death metal before); it is in the way it is sculpted. This is metal, uncompromisingly intense and accessible. It achieves accessibility not by dumbing down or watering down the aggression but by making every single song feel like it is a big number. An astonishing piece of work.

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