Album/EP

Tallah – The Generation Of Danger (Album Review)

Walladmin

Heavy Metal Wordsmith

Nov 16, 2022

7 min read

Tallah – The Generation Of Danger
Released: November 18^th, 2022

Lineup:

Justin Bonitz // vocals
Max Portnoy // drums & percussion
Derrick Schneider // lead guitar
Alize “Mewzen” Rodriguez // keyboards and samples
Alex Snowden // rhythm guitar

Online:

Facebook
Instagram
Website

Emerging nu-core outfit Tallah returns with a follow-up to their first album from 2020, Matriphagy, with The Generation Of Danger, a relentless offering of thirteen heavy-as-f*ck outings that earn them the title of trailblazers in their genre.

Forming in Pennsylvania in 2018, the band has some deep metal heritage courtesy of drummer Max Portnoy, whom more cultured metal musicians will recognise as the son of Dream Theatre’s Mike Portnoy, although the comparisons stop there, with Max having developed his own signature style within his generation’s genre of choice.

Those who may have spent time down a YouTube rabbit hole of metal/screaming vocal tutorials may have come across some helpful guides provided by Tallah’s frenzied lead vocalist Justin Bonitz, who shines the most on this album with a broad range of cleans, screams, raps and, to put it simply, vocal manipulations across the album’s mixture of dynamic tracks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TB9tz1Wwpw

While proving a worthy style of their own, Tallah manages to infuse a broad range of influences into the mix, chaotic tracks like 'The Hard Reset' and 'Shaken (not stirred)' are adorned with bouncy Slipknot-like choruses and instrumental passages that reminded me of what it was like to listen to albums like Iowa for the first time, with a swathe of groove metal riffs thrown into the mix by guitarists Derrick Schneider and Alex Snowden.

Harder moments come up across the record just as much as frenzied passes, such as in the track 'Wendrid', where Justin channels a Mike Patton-esque palette of vocal sounds that are polished off with a soundscape of turntables and keyboards provided by Mewzen Rodriquez.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1oTHLifSWk

As the heavy music landscape continues to move into the 2020s and beyond, it’s great to see bands like Tallah take what people like myself grew up on and experiment with it to produce a frenetic album that both salutes the old guard but offers up their signature sound as the new normal. I have no doubt we’ll be seeing more acts like this one enter the spotlight and continue to wave the flag for heavy music.