genres: progressive metalcore + psychedelic
Progressive metalcore is quickly becoming a crowded genre, and it’s possibly one of the toughest subgenres to make an impact in. Even the biggest bands in the scene sometimes struggle to set themselves apart from earlier work, yet this relatively new band have done nothing short of spectacular with this album. The easiest comp is definitely Erra. Vocally there’s quite a bit of similarity in both the cleans and screams, and quite a few riffs have a similar feel as well. That’s certainly not a bad thing – Erra are one of the biggest and best loved acts around – but to leave it at that would be a disservice to the unique touches that Blueshift bring in. The most dramatic addition is adding a certain psychedelic rock/70s prog flair to many of the tracks, providing a much appreciated flamboyance to a genre that’s leaned a bit too far into clinical technicality in my opinion. More importantly, this album is just so much fun. The songwriting embraces simplicity in a way that demands much less out of a casual listener, while each individual element has enough depth and detail to satisfy more intense genre fans. “Cloak and Dagger” in particular is remarkably catchy.
This album came out in early 2020, and we’ve already gotten a couple new singles from the band that hint at taking all of these factors to a whole new level on their next project. In the meantime, if you haven’t gotten around to checking this album out, there’s no better time than now!
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