Album Review: Allt – From The New World (Century Media Records)

Swedish progressive metal outfit Allt will release their debut album ‘From the New World’, on October 4th, 2024, via Century Media Records. On this album the band explore the physical aftermath of a nuclear event and the emotional and philosophical landscape that would follow. Questions about existence, solitude in the universe, and human resilience are universal. From The New World is a journey of self-discovery in the wake of devastation.

Such a creative vision would be difficult for many to embody in musical form, and certainly from a listenable perspective. So, it is simply astounding to not just find the album’s varied vignettes equally transfixing, but to find an overarching narrative that creates some of the most vivid scenery. Allt have set a very high bar with this album, one that measures cinematic scope and storytelling depth, while not focused on specifics. Something that allows the music to connect with its audience on a more universally relevant level.

Setting the scene in blinding synthy fashion, A Flash of Light opens the album and will have most listeners immediately seated. Something is happening and Allt need every bit of your attention. All so they can bring forth a vast style of alternative and progressive metal via a series of alluring tracks. Utilising unique effects to create an experience that feels like an amalgamation of organic and synthetic aspects.

Where explosivity drives an effort like Remnant, thick darkness covers a track like Aquila, stompy and roaring heaviness makes a track like Memory of Light stand out, and dramatic melody is showcased with aplomb on Echoes. Although the outro to this latter effort is some of the most eye-watering heaviness on the album.

The first half of this album is phenomenal and Allt have crafted something that impressively balances alternative accessibility with progressive intensity. No two tracks sound the same, no two tracks bring the same vibe, and no two tracks fail to spark vibrant visions of Allt’s deeper storytelling aspects. Even when certain ideas don’t necessarily hold the attention, Allt manage to make things notable.

Case in point? The Orphan Breed and Dissect Yourself, a pair of tracks that feature feral energy with manic electronica. Both up there as the most bewildering of listens, especially because of chunky rhythms and disturbing savage transformations.

Isn’t it fascinating though? If you’ve made this far into the album, then the strong unnatural aspects of the Allt sound will have you well and truly enamoured. Ensuring that the latter part, with hefty efforts like Emanate, Ephemeral, and Cycles, sounds as strong as everything that came before. Allt finding even more creative depths to plumb and fusing even more of their unique sounds together in a way that starts to resemble something only madness could create.

This is what comes From the New World and Allt have the soundtrack with this impressive album.

Allt – From the New World Track Listing:

1. A Flash of Light
2. Remnant
3. Aquila
4. Memory of Light
5. Echoes
6. The Orphan Breed
7. Dissect Yourself
8. Emanate
9. Ephemeral
10. Cycles

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