Album Review: Broken Empire – Before the Fall (Self Released)

The UK’s hottest new metal band Broken Empire launch their debut album ‘Before the Fall’ worldwide on CD & digitally on the 14th of October 2022.

The alarm that sounds at the start of this album (Prelude) is all the warning you’re going to get before Broken Empire drop a bunch of tectonic tracks. Kicking into Disguise, the riffs are solid gold here but it’s the damn catchiness of the chorus that really stands out. Broken Empire setting the bar for their brand of modern metal high early on.

A bar that is immediately passed with the punchy groove of the title track, a song that has some wilder and heavier bursts, the instrumentation really sparking into life here. Followed then by the crunchy drum beats, riffs and guttural growls of Valediction. One of the heavier and nastier sounding tracks on the album. Before the choppy guitar rhythm and powerful clean singing of One Last Time cuts through strongly.

Each track as infectious as the other. It’s a major selling point of Broken Empire. That infectious quality that exists in everything they do. It’s that which compels the mind to stay focused and keep on listening on. In fact, the more time spent with Before the Fall, the better it sounds. It’s got instant impact, just check out the head-banging groove of Insanity (Is Reality) for proof of that, but it also has layers that are exposed through multiple listens.

The first half of the album is a banger and that opinion isn’t changing in the second half. Broken Empire continuing to show just why their claim of being the ‘hottest new metal band’ is fair and believable. The frenetic energy and powerful lyrics of Praying for a Change, the melodic heft of We Are Alive, the head-banging groove of Hollow Ground, and the verbose moodiness and heaviness of Blame Me. Track after track that justifies the claim and then some.

All good things must end though and it’s in a very impactful way that Broken Empire choose to end Before the Fall. AI End Protocol showcasing heartfelt melody and a rousing speech that seems to be a play on Charlie Chaplin’s Great Dictator speech. Before The Reckoning delivers urgency, threatening desperation and one of the album’s most uplifting choruses.

Broken Empire – Before the Fall Full Track Listing:

1. Prelude
2. Disguise
3. Before The Fall
4. Valediction
5. One Last Time
6. Insanity (Is Reality)
7. Praying For a Change
8. We Are Alive
9. Hollow Ground
10. Blame Me
11. AI End Protocol
12. The Reckoning

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