Album Review: Mycelia – Apex (Eclipse Records)

Apex is the fourth album from progressive deathcore band, Mycelia. The album features thirteen intense songs that draw upon influences ranging from metal and djent, to jazz and classic film scores. It will be released on October 12th 2018 via Eclipse Records.

Taking a page out of the Meshuggah playbook in regards to the bone-crushingly heavy progressive style. Mycelia’s Apex makes its own mark by littering tracks with effects and clean vocal segments. The influences are heavy throughout but it can be said that Mycelia have the enough going on to stand out.

The surreal deathcore heaviness of Eight Milligrams (many a pit is going to be opened on this track alone) is followed by the ordinary sounding Nefarious Seeds. A track that lacks bite as much because of the clean vocals that make it sound like just another run of the mill deathcore song.

Lawnmower Man brings things back around though with some good hardcore vocals mixed in with bludgeoning metal riffs. A great track but nothing compared to the unique flavour of Once Upon A Lie. This is where Mycelia show off some character, crafting a unique mix of pop-punk vocals and effects with a heavy surliness making this a very unique track.

A short blast of heated proggy heaviness from East of Eden leads to the weight of Monolith bearing down on you, The Hateful Half Half-Dozen fires off effect-driven metal and Slip-Along Jack McTravis shows off a lot of imagination with some wacky moments. Even if it doesn’t quite work being a muddled mess of effects, clean and heavy moments that fail to spark.

Those who’ve stuck with it up to this point might think the album has peaked already but Mycelia have plenty more in the tank and head towards the end of the album with fists swinging. Flak and E.V.A. are another pair of techy/dejenty/proggy heavy tracks. The former with no vocals, the latter keeping things rooted in the clean/filthy duel style.

The penultimate track Cromulon is a furious assault of wild blast beats and the final track, Timesick melodic moments and video game ‘chip tunes’ elements ends things strongly.

Mycelia – Apex Full Track Listing:

1. Eight Milligrams
2. Nefarious Seeds
3. Lawnmower Man
4. Once Upon A Lie
5. East Of Eden
6. Monolith
7. Holler
8. The Hateful Half-Dozen
9. Slip-Along Jack McTravis
10. Flak
11. E.V.A.
12. Cromulon
13. Timesick

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Apex will be available via all major streaming services and shops as well as Bandcamp. You can keep up to date with news of the release by going to Mycelia’s website, Facebook Page and Instagram.