Evilness – ‘Unreachable Clarity’ [Review]
Bands like Evilness never fail to make me nostalgic. Until almost a decade ago, I spent almost every night of the week heading out to rock and metal gigs and one particular club where I spent many relentlessly intense nights pumped full of Red Bull and jumping around to music like this until I inevitably crashed and headed home. Those days were fun, though unsustainable; today, the Red Bull has been replaced by J2O, and my life’s soundtrack has become infinitely more eclectic.
Unreachable Clarity is what it is: 40+ minutes of relentlessly bludgeoning brutality. There are very few extras on top of that, although there are subtle touches that reward repeated listens. Technically speaking, Unreachable Clarity ticks that metal-band checklist box effortlessly, and the production is high quality too. But overall, there’s not much on offer that hasn’t been done many times before. Hence my nostalgia.
A decade ago I could go out on a regular basis and find this music in abundance. Today it is much less common, but personally I love hearing metal bands aim for the future (as Doomed From Day One do), and not the past. Retromania has been very much in fashion so far this century, and there’s certainly still a market for this kind of music – but it would be really cool to hear Evilness’s future work filled with something more unique. Something ahead of its time, especially when so many of their competitors continue to lag behind. Unreachable Clarity is a common career landmark – one that demonstrates the absorption of pre-existing influences and a high level of musicianship – and I’m sure Evilness will push themselves to a new creative level for their next release. When they do, I look forward to hearing it.
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