Inlandsys - The Fallen

Inlandsys hail from France, and their 2nd full length album “The Fallen” is a fall back to the early 2000s side of Melodeath Metal and Symphonic Death Metal. If one is a fan of bands like Dark Tranquillity or Septicflesh (minus the clean vocals), they will really enjoy this album. The five piece have a bit of a grandiose sound thanks to Dan Swano’s production, but it is isn’t too polished or slickened that it doesn’t feel overly organic like more recent Fleshgod Apocalypse, but more of the solid well rounded guitar, keyboard, and vocal balance like that heard on “Damage Done” from Dark Tranquillity. Tracks like the opening ‘Humiliation’ have strong riffs and clean piano which along with the lower growls (though there 3 vocalists) and will remind listeners of more the late 90s Melodeath, but more bombastic. Then there are others like ‘Motherland!’ which are more symphonic driven with touches of Hypocrisy with more snarls than growls. The tandem between vocalists/ guitarists Baptiste and Laurent are traded off nicely along bassist Yann who unfortunately gets lost in all the sound because there is a lot going on, from the keyboards to the backing choirs and the pummeling riffs with the machine gun drums from Christ. Keyboardist Antonin really layers on the symphonies on some tracks such as the Dimmu Borgir like chugger with ‘Providers of the Great Apocalypse,’ but never really overtakes a song or overloads it with his approach. The Black Metal elements are there too somewhat, but they are very sublime and not as prominent, making it hard to stand out, kind of like more recent God Dethroned which in the past delivered more on the Black Metal side but as time has gone on, leaned more towards Melodic Death Metal.

While the symphonic elements do draw a lot of attention and somewhat soften of the rougher edges of the music, some tracks have that perfect balance like the ‘march to war’ styled ‘Whores Of War’ which lets the keyboards lend support along with the operatic elements, but the drums and guitars really carry the music. Other tracks like ‘Persona’ really lean heavily on the symphonic elements and lean more towards Septicflesh territory versus Dark Tranquillity or Hypocrisy, but again, it is restrained symphonics. The Melodeath elements still reign supreme. Oddly enough the more symphonic sounding song title ‘Pyramid of the One-Eyed God’ is the most Melodeath one on the album; very riff focused and shows the range of all three vocalists. The symphonic quieter sides of the music do tend to lose the momentum a bit, but the band builds tension that way such as on ‘The Bird, The Tower, And The Lord’ and even experiments more with the vocals adding in spoken cleans, which are effective and could be used more throughout the album for more variety. They keyboards are also more Dark Tranquillity styled.

Even Inlandsys’ slower songs have momentum like the mid paced closer ‘Wrong Side Of The Century.’ Opting for a slower build up with some melodic guitar work before speeding up, this one merges some of the better sounds of Hypocrisy meets Dark Tranquillity for a strong finale and goes to show that the band doesn’t always need full blown operatics to make a lasting impression. Fans who like their Melodeath with all growls and no cleans (male or female) will find “The Fallen” a dark and wonderous listen that is well produced, but not overly saturated. More than bare bones, this will take listeners back to a time when Melodeath was really getting their stride in popularity for its mix of aggression and also beauty without too many frills as it churns along. A great release from Great Dane Records.

4 / 5 STARS