Allerjen
Equilibrium
Brutal Elite Records

Perseverence – it’s an increasingly rare commodity in metal bands and one that, if you possess enough of it, can be a priceless weapon in an industry littered with impatient copycats and genre-hopping paper-chasers. Without so much as an acknowledging glance from the big cheeses in the mainstream metal community, Manchester’s Allerjen have existed in various guises for 11 years, staying loyal to an uncompromising mash of aural venom and meticulous song construction.

Yet, despite some utterly weighty vocals, well-balanced guitar layers and drums that have the experimental fortitude to bring about the appearance of a cowbell without even a hint of irony on ‘Embrace The Divine’, you’re more likely to find yourself smiling and nodding along to ‘Equilibrium’ rather than pumping your first and ferociously banging your head. Rather frustratingly, you find yourself waiting for the moment something leaps out of the speakers and commands your unwavering attention but it just doesn’t come. Some lazy, murky production combined with Allerjen’s all-too-frequent tendency to go through the motions results in slabs of formulaic melodic death metal, a genre which, in truth, is in danger of having its life slowly sucked out of it. When the band does attempt to break from the norm by slowing down the pace, the lack of ideas and imagination in the band’s songwriting becomes more and more apparent.

Standout tracks like ‘The Process Of Being’ and ‘Achieving Equilibrium’ make sure this stops a few feet short of being dismissed as a poor album but Allerjen will need to step things up a notch or two in future if they’re to be anything other than one of metal’s also-rans.

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Review by Adam Starkey