Northlane

Alien

Alien was one of the most innovative metal projects back when I first found it, and even to this day, it still sounds as amazing as the first one (or even more). It's a surprisingly personal album, that evokes different images and themes from the vocalist Marcus Bridge’s childhood and his relationship with his father. It's a great standout from the metalcore genre, and one of the best albums from 2019.

All the worst elements of metalcore come together on this album. Stale production, lackluster vocals, crappy generic riffs we've heard a thousand times, and just an overall feeling of cheapness. Let's leave this kind of rock in the past, ok?

Alien is one of the most inluential metalcore records mixing the brutality of this genre with an EDM style that makes it unique. I think this is the only one that does it in a decent way but it's also a bit rough around the edges.

This is a great album with a lot of new and refreshing ideas. Besides the absolutely heavy moments, there are a lot of nice catchy melodies too. I thought the production was great as well, everything just seemed to blend really well together sonically. Although I don't think every idea turned out perfectly, especially on some songs towards the end, like Eclipse or Rift. I mean they certainly sound cool, but I much prefer the first half of the album. Everything until Jinn I loved, and would come ... read more