The arrival for a new release of a band or an artist is something that we always look forward to. And it’s up to us on deciding whether we like the new album or not. That’s the same thing with Los Angeles-based band, Edge of Paradise who have unleashed the massive heavy, thunder or their latest release, Prophecy. For 14 years, this band have unleashed five studio albums from 2011 to 2023, and they never back down without a fight.
I first became aware of their music when I bought Immortal Waltz on The Laser’s Edge website ten years ago. I was intrigued to hear and delve into the world of Margarita’s lyrical structures. The moment I put the album on, I knew right there this was a band I need to check out. Despite line-up changes from 2011 to 2023, the band pull out all of the stop signs out and are about to go guns blazing.
That’s how this quintet is bringing elements of electronic music, ‘80s new wave, prog, symphonic metal, and heavy-pounding riffs that is needed, down and front. The themes behind Prophecy deals with vulnerability, resilience, and what is it like to be in the human race. If Immortal Waltz is the alternate soundtrack to Alan Moore’s 1988 controversial graphic novel of Batman: The Killing Joke, then Prophecy itself descends into complete themes of madness.
‘Sad Life of a Rose’ sees Monet walking into a romance gone horribly wrong. Her voice sends shivers down your spine as if she’s creeping up on you. With its orchestral vibrations, heavy guitar riffs, and doubling bass drums between Monet, Bates, Weiand, and Moreno, it makes you walk inside this dream that’s been waiting for you.
‘Rogue (Aim for the Kill)’ brings to mind a heavier version of Lenny Kravitz’s Circus-era, set in this dystopian amusement park that refers to someone hit their target, confronting the demons that have been haunted them for a long, long time. Not only there’s Lenny Kravitz, but the powerful forces of Pat Benatar’s ‘Heartbreaker’ that comes to mind, but once you head for the ‘Prophecy Unbound’, it follows into some ‘80s-electronic-metal attack that continues to walk in the possible universes which are about to unfold in front of your very eyes to change history.
The opening track ‘Death Note’ pulls in more of the slithering arrangements as if we’re inside a story, straight out of the adult-illustrated fantasy magazine, Heavy Metal. Monet is very much a storyteller, bringing the elements of science-fiction, nightmarish fantasies, and giving the Marvel universe, the giant middle finger.
While it tackles themes on making a deal with the devil, you know that there’s no turning back as you pay the ultimate price at the very end. ‘Hear Me’ is the calm after the storm as Monet goes to her piano as she channels the vocal arrangements between Marjana Semkina of iamthemorning, Tori Amos, and Kate Bush. You feel the loneliness, the abandoned house that has been stuck in time for a long time, and the ghost that haunts this location as Monet pours her heart and soul in this lush turned emotional composition.
Then, we get into this intensive dance for ‘The Other Side of Fear’ where the band do this intensive swinging tango that speaks of the Diablo Swing Orchestra at times. Monet confronts her demons once more as she walks into the hall of mirrors reflecting her past and present in front of her very eyes. But this is no swing genre, this is a return to its symphonic form at its finest!
‘Give it to Me’ speaks of Mastodon’s Crack the Skye-era that Edge of Paradise channels. You can almost hear a sequel to ‘Oblivion’ in this industrial form, thanks to New York’s own Ludovico Technique that lends in a helping hand to make the music ascend into its own form of insanity with intensive beats that nearly speak of Bowie’s character Detective Nathan Adler from the Outside album, and bits of the Earthling-era that comes to mind.
Is this an imaginative movie inside our heads? Yes. But with repeatable listens to see what Edge of Paradise will lead in with missing clues to keep you coming back for more, to use the power and spark of electricity, flowing inside their veins.
