Let the melodic death metal revival begin!

Maybe it’s because we’ve been stuck at home for a year. Maybe it’s the crushing feeling of nothing changing. Maybe I’m just bored with everything, but it feels like we’ve been stuck on the same exercise wheel for a long time now, especially when it comes to metal. It feels like we’re on the 40th wave of thrash metal and the old school death metal revival is elementary school age. It’s great that there are young and hungry bands that are keeping the old school sound alive, but for people that like our death metal to be melodic, we need something more. We need catchy hooks to go along with our brutal vocals. We need blazing, memorable guitars to complement the relentless pounding of drums. We need Akiavel‘s new album Væ Victis and lucky for us, we can listen to it right here and right now!

The French quartet’s sound most readily bring forth comparisons to Carcass, At The Gates, and Gossow-era Arch Enemy. Sure, there are well-established bands still keeping the melo-death sound alive, but it’s refreshing to see a new band come on to the scene with such skill and vigor. Even straight-forward death metal fans will definitely find enough here to sink their blood-soaked teeth into as well. Amazingly, Vae Victis is self-released. Major metal labels like Century Media, Nuclear Blast, and Metal Blade are dropping the ball and will be kicking themselves when (not if) another label snatches them up.

About the album, the band says:

After more than 2 years of existence of Akiavel, we knew each other way better, so composing Vae Victis was really easier. It only took us a few months to compose and record it. Having managed to create the “Akiavel sound” with the first album, we immediately knew, when it came to composing Vae Victis, what we wanted this second album to sound like. The mixing of our 4 different musical influences worked very well on our first album and led to the creation of Akiavel. So we went down that route again to compose Vae Victis. This album actually reflects the music we want to listen to, the music the four of us really like. This album has been composed and recorded during the pandemic. The free time we suddenly had allowed each of us to go further into the techniques of our respective instruments, and I like to think you can hear on the album.”

Click play and find out that the melodic death metal revival is real.

Vae Victis is out on April 23rd and can be purchased on the band’s website and Bandcamp. You can follow them on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Youtube.