Alatyr - Nequam

Alatyr

Nequam

by Lotty Whittingham at 23 October 2015, 6:36 PM

It’s refreshing to see more bands are popping up over the UK, it seems the town Bristol is breeding some quality Metal bands within each sub-genre. The sub genre in question for this particular review is Melodic Metal and the band ALATYR. This year released their debut EP “Nequam” and it is a great indicator of what they will bring to the table.

For those of you who don’t know ALATYR were a creation concocted by guitarists James Manley and Jamie Mardon, since the year 2012 where the world didn’t end they started working on songs with the help of vocalist Steph Kiddle and drummer Aaron Brain. With a range of influences ranging from FLYLEAF to DIMMU BORGIR it seemed quite an ambition for a band to make some sounds with that effect. They just managed to do so; you can hear this on their EP “Nequam”.

 “Prototype” kicks the EP off quite nicely in a very FLYLEAF fashion; the beautiful, clear vocals by charismatic vocalist Steph Kiddle are spot on, accompanied strongly by the grunts and growls given to us by James Mardon, James Manley’s strong riffs, Andreas Fereto’s pulsation bass line and the pounding drums from Aaron Brain. As well as FLYLEAF you get hints of fellow Melodic Death Metallers THE AGONIST.
The rest of the EP keeps up this amount of quality talent and musicianship; even getting to hear the DIMMU BORGIR-esque growls at the beginning of “Souls Bitter Cry” and for the duration of “Cursed”.

Overall this EP provides a solid little collection that showcases the band’s potential; it should be noted that they will be back with a brand spanking new line up and will be releasing a brand new single by the end of this year. If this promising EP is anything to go by, there is no need to worry.