Review Summary: Futuristic, boundary-pushing evolution of symphonic metal, with equal parts cinematic grandiosity, crushing heaviness and surprising dynamics
Assemble the Chariots are a group of enterprising Finns who've already been at this thing for around 15 years, with the first music they released dating back to 2009. It was only a single song - and that's curiously enough something of a curse that would remain with this creative band until just recently - they'd never released anything longer than 3-track EPs for all this time. This puzzling streak is finally broken with their first LP:
Ephemereal Trilogy Episode One: Unyielding Night, a 14-track behemoth. And yep, you read right - after a literal decade and a half of releasing no more than 3 songs at a time, they kicked into such a level of overdrive that they weren't afraid of committing to a trilogy of albums where the first one has
fourteen. Commendable level of commitment and ambition for sure, let's just hope they don't pull another Scar Symmetry and have us wait 9 years for the second album in the trilogy...
But let's focus on the here and now. Assemble the Chariots' sound has been changing and evolving with every release they put out over the years, with the only repeating core components being futuristically oriented symphonic metal and modern, djent-leaning deathcore. Over the years they mixed it with melodic black/death metal (the 2009 song, "Reflections"), flat-out sympho black (2012's
The Sulphur Voids), the same but adding in
The Discovery-era Born of Osiris-style arpeggio licks on 2015's
World Architects, and finally settling into their current sound on 2020's
Celestials. Since that current sound is what you'll also find on this release, might as well describe it, thought it's not as straightforward as it may seem. They've cut down on the djenty, breakdowny aspects of their deathcore sound considerably, to give way for more thought-out songwriting where the various, eclectic genres and tropes at their disposal serve only as tools to tell the story and engross the listener. The black metal aspects are cut down on considerably as well, as has been their tendency in recent years, although shades of that are still present in non-negligible amounts. It's still symphonic death metal at its core, but with the cinematic bombast one would expect of acts such as Ovid's Withering or Shadow of Intent (even including spoken word, narrated parts telling a themed story), yet without being so beholden to the tropes that those acts still weren't able to escape - here you've got ultra-heavy crushing sections with blast beats being ubiquitous, but - for the first time in the bands's career - also a foray into more digestible, groove and power metal sections that come completely from left field, but meld amazingly well with the heavy parts enclosing them and providing the much needed dynamics and variety that make the listening easier and more engaging. Hell, there's even an entire chorus sung in a vibrated power metal screech by vocalist Kristo Sundström in the song "Emancipation", that catches you completely by surprise but is executed well enough to make you think the guy is doing some power metal side gig - something especially impressive given his versatility while doing harsh vocals too (which also, fortunately in my opinion don't stray into the recent trend of tiresome vocal acrobatics in deathcore that some other bands happily indulge in). But all this just goes to show that the mentality that went into writing this album wasn't one of wanting to make an album of a particular genre - just to make a good album period.
As for the structure of the album itself, fourteen tracks may seem intimidating (getting a traumatic "Fourteen Soungs of Conscious Insanity" flashback right about now! hell, this is way more consciously insane than that crap), but the album clocks in at a manageable 52 minutes, which, given all I've written above, really doesn't feel that long - especially factoring in all the short interludes and the songs being so different from each other in the first place. And that's probably the most noticeable and commendable thing here - the songs being really different from each other at the end of the day. Normally only prog bands even care to try to do that (and not even they always pull it off). Some songs will feel more like Shadow of Intent, some like Septicflesh, some like Shade Empire, some like Lorna Shore, some like Mechina - take your pick - while still maintaining thematic congruence and not feeling like a jumbled, disconnected mess. Definitely an ideal to aspire to, and these guys have passed the test with flying colors.
So yeah, this is it - for everyone tired of bands that "don't push any boundaries" or "never break any new ground" -
Unyielding Night by Assemble the Chariots takes the last 30 years of metal history, rolls them up in a ball and serves the resulting product to you on a silver platter, with delicious gravy of symphonic, cinematic pomp. They may have taken 15 years to release an LP, but these guys have really hit a home run with this one.
