By Kat Preston
Eros|Anteros is new, it's lighter, and it's definitely not Maelstrom but all the while it's still very much Oathbreaker. From a first listen and knowing their first album as well as I do, this really does feel like rising from the darkness and into the light. There are much more melodic overtones and a sense of crystal clarity as opposed to the thick, crusty, blackened feel of their previous material. Only half way through and you'll immediately pick up on the ebb and flow of their newly developed sound. God god, this is truly beautiful.
You're eased gently into proceedings by the ephemeral 'Beeltenis' and beautifully melancholic yet uplifting 'No Rest For The Weary' before you plummet into 'Upheval' and a more familiar Oathbreaker sound. This really is a step onwards and upwards for the band. Mid-way through lies the elephantine 'The Abyss Looks Into Me' that rolls across it's nine minute timespan with the thick, slow-motion grace a mammoth caught in a tar pit (meant in the nicest possible sense- that's what it makes me see in my head). Drawing closer to the end of the record, 'Nomads' kicks off with a much harder, galloping pace reminiscent of earlier days and almost Rise And Fall-esque before suddenly breaking the barrier through to delicate epic of 'Clair Obscur'.
Akin to rising above the blackest clouds of a thunderstorm and arriving in the surreal bright atmosphere above, Eros|Anteros has to be one of the most definitive, game changing albums of the year. This is really digging its elbows into JK Flesh and Agitator for release of the year for me. Wasn't sure what to expect from this- part of me wanted more Maelstrom, part of me had no idea what the new material would sound like.
With the fairly slow start to the year, I was excited but didn't set my hopes too high, but crikey, this has blown my expectations well out of the water. If this doesn't raise the bar and incite a big change in the hardcore scene, then I don't know what will.
FFO: Deafheaven, Rise And Fall, Wolves In The Throne Room, Enabler
