Alluvial – Death is But a Door (Nuclear Blast)

Wednesday, 3rd January 2024 By Katarina McGinn

Rating: 8.5/10

Moving from an instrumental act to a vocal-backed one for 2021’s Sarcoma, Alluvial left a lasting impression for an intelligent death metal album that still brought plenty of aggression and melodies. Looking forward three years, the band has delivered a new taste of material in a 4-song EP Death is But a Door, the first offering since Sarcoma. For fans of said album, this EP will be a must-hear, and serves as a nice initiation for those who may have missed the band’s earlier efforts as it effectively pushes each direction to the next level.

Given that there’s only four songs on Death is But a Door, it’s unsurprising but quite cool that each song has it’s own vibe. Opener “Bog Dweller” starts with some big death metal riffing and groovy mid-tempo crunch. The riffs are meaty and potent for the band’s sound, and operate in that sweet spot of just enough melody to keep it from being too chaotic, but in listening to the riffs themselves, there’s a lot to dissect. “Fog Belt” has some eerie, ominous feelings to it as it rumbles along, occasionally dabbling in jackhammer grooves – overall it’s a slower song than the opener, but it really goes all in on delivering more of a murky, haunting atmosphere, particularly at it’s slowest. “Area Code” switches gears to showcase the more frenetic side of the band, also giving vocalist Kevin Muller a greater chance to showcase some massive growls and screams as the band stomps through mostly high-tempo riff-fest that still manages to keep enough hooks in to grab your ear, particularly when they slow it down to a crawling breakdown at the end. The title track closes the album, and switches gears yet again to show how striking the band can sound when they move further into the atmospheric and melodic side. Muller uses some clean-ish vocals when necessary, the the instruments around him usher in an almost dreamy landscape at times (albeit a darkly dreamy feeling), which really closes the EP in the best possible way – a little bit of a breather so that you can jump right back into the fray once more.

Alluvial continue to prove they should be considered among death metal’s upper echelon. Death is But a Door is short but oh so sweet in delivering plenty of bludgeoning riffs, visceral blasts, and a potent dose of atmospheric bliss. You really can’t go wrong with what they are putting out if you want some extreme metal that is multi-faceted rather than being one-note.