Greylotus – Dawnfall (The Artisan Era)
Monday, 11th July 2022
Encompassing a wide array of progressive, technical, death, and outside the box influences to create a metallic stew that’s equally diverse as it is expansive, Greylotus as a five-piece outfit comes out to impress after four years together with this debut album Dawnfall. Releasing their first EP Savior back in 2018, they went on the road the following year with Abiotic, Cognitive, and God of Nothing – hunkering down during the pandemic to write, refine, and produce this nine-song opus of sound, equally invigorating for its blazing musicianship as it is wondrous for the ambient, smoother contrasts that pull from new age, jazz, or non-metal waters.
The intricate, rhythmic to circular runs pushed in all directions across the progressive/technical death landscape with modern angst and deathcore fury from guitarists Sanjay Kumar and Ben Towles showcase amazing dexterity while also taking into consideration smaller harmony or hook-oriented sequences that provide earworms for memorable passages throughout the record. Check into the Fallujah-like aural assault for “Chiaroscuro” or the calmer, clean to electric propulsion during “Hoarfrost” that brings up Animals as Leaders, Gojira, and The Faceless duking it out part to part. The relentless extreme nature to vocalist Lee Mintz’s delivery contains the occasional growl or smooth alternative clean allegiance – mirroring the incredible blasting nature for drummer Matt Tillett that never relents right away on opener “Rectilinear Motion”, gearing down midway through into a volatile swirl of djent/progressive twists in the instrumental sections and final verses that cause maximum body carnage in live situations. The record closes on a couple of six-minute plus arrangements – the title track and “Azure Rain” – both illustrate Greylotus’ ability to be dynamic in mapping out the riffs, tempo changes, and style switch-ups so as to put their music across without overloading the listener in terms of musical information.
Dawnfall is another example of why this style continues to gain ground across North America into global territories. Pooling from influences far and wide, Greylotus delivers their music from an intricate progressive and technical death base while injecting the proper amount of calm, left field ambient or new age/jazz nuances to keep most listeners engaged front to back.
