Album/EP

Alt. - ABEYANCE (Album Review)

Cait Mac

Jun 12, 2023

7 min read

Alt. - ABEYANCE
Released: June 16th, 2023

Alt. Lineup

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The year is 2020, we’re in the absolute bowels of covid locky d, and my mental health can’t get much worse. I am writing reviews and decide to look at the EP from an Adelaide called Alt. I become OBSESSED with this EP, and two of its songs- ‘chasing safety’ and ‘insubordinate’ are my second and fourth most played songs on Spotify that year. I genuinely feel like playing dysfunction repeatedly helped me through the lockdown depression and helped keep me going. So safe to say – I really like this band. This Friday, the five-piece is releasing their debut album ABEYANCE and you know I had to put my hand up to review.

The band aren’t wasting time or mincing words with the first song ‘PARASITE’. We start with a menacing electronic intro that bursts into a wall of riffs. Leading to the soaring chorus, we get the lyrics “Where’s your spine / you’re a gutless self-righteous mother f*cking / PARASITE” and sh*t, I wouldn’t want to be whoever inspired the song. If, like me, you loved the band’s EP and thought this album would sound similar – from your first listen, you’ll know that is not the case!

https://youtu.be/JC9lC2fzRRY

This album is much heavier and leans much more into metalcore. ‘PARASITE’ brought us a great breakdown, and the second song ‘WRAITH’ keeps the heaviness vibes. This song is jarring and full of incredible heavy vocals from Dan Cullen-Richards. The guitars from "Goose" Wells-Smith and Simon Aistrope weave through fantastically, and James Mullins provides relentless drums.

‘THE GREAT DEPRESSION’ is up next, giving the first chance to take a breath with more soulful verses and chorus. This song is one I would say is closest to the sound on ‘dysfunctional’ but at about level 100. I've said many times that Dan has one of the best voices in Aus heavy music and shows his incredible range on this song.

https://youtu.be/6QVde1zl_6A

Single ‘A.D.D’ melts our faces with a barrage of sound straight up before going into quieter verses. This song hits me in the feels pretty hard; I’ve been STRUGGLING with suspected ADHD and working towards a diagnosis for a while. The struggle has been so much I've quit my full-time job to find a way of working that is better for me. I relate to every single lyric, but especially “I guess I’m just f*cking sick of this / I can’t keep my head above the water / I can’t breathe I’m going under / heavy are my good intentions / Help me as I drown” and “If only I could switch off / I feel like I could do anything” – FEEEELLLLSSSSSS. This song comes with one of the best breakdowns of the album and the holy sh*t – the heavy vocals! This song and ‘THE GREAT DEPRESSION’ are definitely faves of mine.

https://youtu.be/9TcGtT6CLiE

‘BACK TO EARTH’ is a fun, dancey song with an Ocean Grove vibe. The super catchy chorus was made for bouncing, and the instruments are great. There’s an excellent guitar solo, and this would be one of my favourite songs drum-wise across the album. I cannot wait to see this song live – surely, hopefully it will be on the setlist when the band joins Windwaker on tour next month (just in case you're reading this, alt.).

Speaking of favourite songs- ‘APEP’ is yet another one, and not only because it features one of the best heavy vocalists in Aus music, Void of Vision’s Jack Bergin. The riffs in ‘APEP’ are fire, as is the chorus, and Jack’s heavy vocals are goosebump-inducing. There isn’t much more I can say about this song because it speaks for itself.

‘FRIENDINTHEDARK’ takes us back down – at least in verses – and the bassline from Oscar Harding in this song is super cool. ‘THE ONLY GOOD THING’ takes us to more SoundCloud rapper/hip hop vibes before hitting us with a huge chorus featuring great guitar lines and Dan’s emotive high vocals. Special mention to these lyrics “I don’t wanna go out I want to stay in / watching Harry Potter while we’re kissing in the den” – incredible!

https://youtu.be/9TcGtT6CLiE

Finishing off the album is the title track ‘ABEYANCE’ and gorgeous, heart-breaker – ‘BETTER OFF LEAVING’. The heavy part of ‘ABEYANCE’ is so fun, and the chorus is bouncy and catchy; it will be an enjoyable song to throw down to. ‘BETTER OFF LEAVING’ initially has an interesting, distorted sound and then heads into an emotive ballad that will have you listening with one hand over your heart, the other arm up, and eyes closed like you’re listening to gospel. Dan’s vocals throughout the album are incredible, but he lays them all out on the table in this song – leaving nothing. The song builds to a vast sweeping horn crescendo and guitar riffs. What an incredible way to end.

I said earlier that this album doesn’t sound much like the EP dysfunctional, but that is not a bad thing. It's not that ABEYANCE is a complete departure from the band's original sound; you can still hear a lot of it in this new release – it's that the band have taken a HUGE step up. Dan’s vocals have always been incredible but are now out of this world, and it's clear he has been focusing on his heavy vocals. The rest of the band brings world-class instrumentals, and the album is tight, heavy and puts these guys right up into the league of Aussie heavy music that is occupied by bands now gracing the stages of huge festivals both here at home and overseas. Alt. is already well-liked, but I have always felt they are a little underrated and slept on, but this album will catapult them! I cannot wait to see them support Windwaker in July, then hopefully on a headlining tour and THEN onto big festival stages – mark my words, it’ll happen!

alt. – ABEYANCE tracklisting

1. PARASITE
2. WRAITH
3. THE GREAT DEPRESSION
4. A.D.D
5. BACK TO EARTH
6. APEP FEAT. JACK BERGIN
7. FRIENDINTHEDARK
8. THE ONLY GOOD THING
9. ABEYANCE
10. BETTER OFF LEAVING

Rating: 8.5/10
ABEYANCE Out 16 June March via Resist Records. Pre-Order here
Review by Cait Macca @caitastrophe_x

https://youtu.be/CWQ6l6DUs8U

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