Review of Formshifter by Allegaeon

1. Behold (God I Am)

2. Tartessos: The Hidden Xenocryst

3. A Pain Disclosed

4. Iconic Images

5. Twelve

6. The Azrael Trigger

7. From the Stars Death Came

8. Timeline Dissonance

9. Formshifter

10. Secrets of the Sequence

“Allegaeon (pronounced: uh-lee-juhn) was formed in 2008 by founding member and guitar player Ryan Glisan. Soon thereafter joined the classically trained guitarist Greg Burgess, vocalist Ezra Haynes and bassist Corey Archuleta to round out and form what people have come to know now as the Colorado Kings of Melodic Metal. In 2008, Allegaeon released their 4 song, self-titled EP and quickly gained attention from the local, national and international metal fans as well as Metal Blade records. In 2009, barely a year after releasing their first EP to the world, Allegaeon agreed to a deal with Metal Blade Records and thus began their relationship and Allegaeon's entry into the ever expanding metal community.”

There is an awesome soft riff to open the album, which turns into something heavier, with the first minute being a soothing little medley leading into the brutality of Behold (God I Am). I like how melodic the riffs are, there’s a good solo in this song but it is a little hard to hear over the pounding of the rest of the band, but as it progresses it gets a little easier to hear. I don’t know if you’d call the end a break down but it is really heavy and the rhythm strumming is quite groovy. The next song, Tartessos: The Hidden Xenocryst, has a bunch technical riffs and sweeps and that along with the song as a whole kind of remind me of Arch Enemy, the way they lay their songs out. I like the melodic death metal feel of this song. The vocals in A Path Disclosed are so demonic sounding at times with the mesh of different people doing vocals at once, I think there is at least. This band definitely knows how to capture being heavy but also keeping a melodic feel. The solo in this song can be heard better than the one in the first track but it wasn’t as good in my opinion. The dual melodic riff nearer to the end of the song is very well done. Iconic Images is more heavy than melodic but they do add some technical riffs and solos. The end of this track is acoustic diddle which I didn’t mind because it is actually quite interesting. The next track, Twelve, is another heavy track with technicality thrown in which is actually probably one of my favourites on the album with the solos meshing well with the riffs. There is a quick little bass solo at the beginning of The Azrael Trigger, but it was hard to hear, other then that this song seems to just be the usual, no surprises in this song which is basically the same as the next two songs From the Stars Death Came and Timeline Dissonance. Since this is a title track I should talk about Formshifter. The solo in this was nice, and the riff after it was dirty and sludgy sounding, which lead into another two great solos. The slower riff ending the song, which was also between the two last solos was a nice touch. The final track Secrets of the Sequence, starts off with another acoustic bit, which is accompanied with some guitar melodies. The drums come in and the guitars squeal, which was really awesome and I don’t know why but it reminded me of Deathklok. This is another one of my favourites, the melodic bits in this song are probably the best off this album, especially the one after the bass part.

This album is something I would recommend to someone who likes melodic death metal. My favourite tracks are Behold (God I Am), Tartessos, A Path Disclosed, Twelve, and Secrets of Sequence. I myself did enjoy this album but after a while, you kind of just no the formula of their songs. You get your heavy riffs, your technical diddles, and your solos. If they changed it up a little I may have liked this album a little more. I don’t mean to sound rude, but you get bored hearing the same song formation over and over.