I have to say Earthtone9 sent me on a bit of an emotional rollercoaster in the last couple of years. After pulling out of Arctangent festival in 2022 and signalling the end to the second phase of the band I didn’t expect to be sitting here reviewing album number five which was announced this year! What seemed to be a band that was dead and buried has just produced an album that hits the heaviness of its early work but delivers with eyes fully pointing forward. Earthtone9, through no lack of effort and accomplishment, has seemingly skirted around the metal underground below the attention of the numbers their output has deserved with its diverse blend of alternative and progressive metal. With In Resonance Nexus the band erupts with a distinctive effort which will surely boost them to the attention of the wider metal scene where they have always belonged.
It is a well trodden cliche for a later release of a band’s career to be ‘the heaviest but the most melodic’ to date but opener ‘The Polyphony Of Animals’ fills that description perfectly and shows some new muscles at full flex. The addition of drummer Jason Bowld (Bullet For My Valentine) instantly pops out with a heaviness which compliments the driving style of original drummer Simon Hutchby but adds an extra venom. Bowld is relentless throughout and the kick drum bursts from the speakers with a threat of hitting me in the face. ‘The Polyphony Of Animals’, along with ‘Oceanic Drift’ and ‘Lash Of The Tongues’, shows the more melodic side as they feature some of the most melodic Earthtone9 choruses I think there has been. Here the band melds into a section where Karl Middleton really opens his clean range and it certainly took me a bit by surprise. That really isn’t a negative and the vocals throughout the tracks ravage and shred just as heavily as before.
In that spirit In Resonance Nexus does really feel like a band freed of any constraints or preconceptions whilst remaining truly an Earthtone9 album. ‘Under The Snake’ hints towards the rhythmic beauty of ‘Amnesia’ but with a wild beast ripping through its midsection. The guitars throughout are possibly the most savage since Off Kilter Enhancement, but sit on a totally different scale. The distortion has been swapped for sheer metallic weight backed up by some ridiculous double kick and rapid drumming. Take ‘Etiquette of Distortion’ if you were to hear that without knowing it was Earthtone9 it would take until the vocals kick in to have any clue. To be 26 odd years into a career and adding this album to the back catalogue is utterly ridiculous.
Everything I love about Earthtone9 is here and then some (they even enlisted the wondrous Neil Kingsbury (Fall of Efrafa/Blackstorm) on bass). The riffs go harder and the vocals sway even further from heavy to clean in the usual flawless manner. As is Earthtone9 tradition the album contains 10 songs, each with flavours, variety and longevity that would be the envy of Willy Wonka. Is this the best Earthtone9 album? That’s a very dangerous and impossible to answer question. I will say this is certainly a landmark for the band’s sound and if this doesn’t see the numbers flocking to hear and see them then I can only curse the algorithm and expand on my pity to those who haven’t felt the utter exuberance of Earthtone9.
