Alarum
Eventuality
Willowtip
Early ‘90s tech thrash now made hip
Something of a departure for the mighty Willowtip label, Aussie quartet Alarum shares a fair amount in common with outfits such as Cynic, Atheist and late-model Pestilence, the bands most frequently cited as reference points. Still, apart from frenetic velocity and the grating bark of bassist-vocalist Mark Palfreyman, there’s little here that actually qualifies as death metal of any sort. More accurately, Alarum is a progressive thrash band marked by blistering technical proficiency and a penchant for fusion-tinged legato guitar heroics of the Holdsworth-Satriani school.
The sheer vertiginous thrill of listening to four virtuosos executing treacherously difficult music at hair-raising velocity makes for a genuine adrenaline rush: suffice it to say that Eventuality contains more gear shifts, hairpin turns and potentially fiery pileups than a stock car race in an icy labyrinth. The music hints at the cybernetic rush of Dimension Hatross-era Voivod pushed to inhuman levels of headlong precision, a comparison furthered by the cosmic thrust of the lyrics. Mark A Evans’s guitar synth dots the landscape with occasional injections of color, such as the steel drum patch near the beginning of “Receiver.”
Trouble is the band rarely stays in one place long enough for its songs to have much of a lasting impact. Vocals frequently seem tossed off as mere connective tissue between serrated riffs and soaring solos. Exceptions like the genuinely memorable “Throughout the Moment” (on which Palfreyman’s clean vocals have a dramatic impact not unlike that of Ihsahn on the later Emperor records) indicate just how powerful this band could be, if only it would spend a little more time developing its best ideas.
—Steve Smith
