Allagash
Cryptic Visions
Independent
Allagash crawled out of Canada a few years ago, a fully-equipped Metal band ready to rock and roll, all the while weaving tales of alien visitation, abduction, and invasion. The band is named after an infamous alien encounter in Allagash, Maine, where two of the men involved claimed alien abduction and the third said it was all made up. They’ve released one full-length and one EP and with Cryptic Visions, they bring us another slab of their pummeling, melodic, and freakish brand of paranoid, sci-fi Old School Metal.
Let’s get this out of the way right at first: all the lyrics reflect various (real life) encounters with alien life forms and UFO’s. You can buy into it or not and that’s your prerogative, but honestly, it shouldn’t interfere with your enjoyment of the music within. You don’t have to believe to enjoy, but it certainly adds an extra, chilling layer to the proceedings if you do. You don’t have to buy into the lyrics to buy into the music.
And oh, the music! What a joyous celebration of Old School Metal. There’s flashes of Thrash here, bits o’ Maiden, plenty of Riot and their ilk. There’s riffs of course, and gobs of glorious melodic passages. These guys can play and they’re not afraid to strut their stuff. But it’s all tastefully done and never gets out of control or flashy for flashy’s sake. Every note serves the individual songs.
Some highlights for the Wizard:
“Evil Intent” is the very definition of what makes Metal so great as a genre. Tough, gruff vocals, a compelling story, and those guitars, layered and chiming, ringing and singing. If this doesn’t make you smile as a fan of music, I don’t know what will.
“From the Dark” just rips right out of the gates. There’s lots of aggression here, but all tamed and controlled by the interweaving melodies. This one gallops like a group of stallions charging into battle.
Closer “Eagle Lake” is fourteen minutes long and you’ll never feel a minute of it go by. In fact, when it was fading out, I was angry that it was over. This one is mostly an instrumental, running the gamut from fast to slow and atmospheric. There’s some voice-over stuff here, telling the tale of an alien abduction encounter, but no actual singing. It is an interesting piece, to say the least.
What you’ve got here is an excellent independent release by a band that hardly anyone knows, but if you do, man, you love. This is a great opportunity to jump on board and support a band that does things their own way, a band that will rock your balls as well as twist your guts. If you’re into Metal before it got all divided into a million subgenres, then Allagash will remind you of the good old days, even while propelling you into the future, one filled with spaceships and aliens with sinister intent.
Four Wands out of Five
The Wizard Has Spoken!
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