Album Review: The Acacia Strain – Step Into The Light (Rise Records)

Arriving on the 12th of May via Rise Records, The Acacia Strain will release two brand-new albums on the same day. Step Into the Light, which is a more traditional deathcore record, and Failure Will Follow, which sees the band experimenting with a sludgier sound.

Not just one new record from The Acacia Strain, but two! This review is focused on the Step into the Light record, which just so happens to be rooted in The Acacia Strain’s bread and butter sound. A ten-track behemoth of pounding, furious, aggressive, and chaotic deathcore.

With every track stomping and smashing the mind, body, and soul into pieces. Step Into the Light simply doesn’t f**k around, evident by the short slabs of feral nasty that come in the form of Flourishing, Calf’s Blood, and Chain. The latter featuring incendiary Chamber vocalist, Jacob Lily. Who helps make this uninhibited pandemonium that will see many a person wrecked in the pit.

Fresh Bones is the first track to pass the two-minute mark but doesn’t change the formula of brash and breakneck deathcore heaviness. It just happens to be a bit more of a measured battering.

Which also works as a description for Teeth of the Cursed Dog and Open Wound. Two monumental examples of The Acacia Strain’s fire and fury. No matter how many songs they produce, they still find ways to push the limit of heaviness. Which makes their team up with Sunami’s Josef Alfonso even more impressive, especially as this is the longest track on the album at nearly 4-minutes long and rally leans into hardcore.

If you’re not exhausted from the vigorous intensity so far, Step into the Light isn’t quite done yet. The Acacia Strain’s bristling and brutish sound reaching a screaming apex with Is This Really Happening?, Untended Graves, and None of Us Asked to Be Here.

Freaking brutal.

The Acacia Strain – Step into the Light Track Listing:

1. Flourishing
2. Calf’s Blood
3. Chain (Feat. Jacob Lilly)
4. Fresh Bones
5. Teeth Of the Cursed Dog
6. Open Wound
7. Sinkhole (Feat. Josef Alfonso)
8. Is This Really Happening?
9. Untended Graves
10. None Of Us Asked to Be Here

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