EP Review: Age of Emergence - The War within Ourselves (2020)

Thos who follow me on Facebook or Instagram might know that originally I planned on being on holiday in Slovenia by now. Well, I am not. Instead, I have time for more reviews.
Making the best of the situation, I will today present the upcoming release "The War within Ourselves" by Age of Emergence from Newcastle, Australia. The trio was founded in 2013 and has since then released one EP and several singles. By the end of March 2020 the Progressive Hard Rockers' second EP is about to be out.

The self-release "The War within Ourselves" features five tracks and a playtime of a bit less than half an hour. Each song is loaded with rough but melodic Heavy Metal, Hard Rock and Prog music. Intelligent rhythms played on a heavy but versatile drumset by Benn Baxter build a great foundation for this musical structure. Dean Holmes' bass and Matt Neilson's guitar add demanding and heavily rolling riffs on the next layer. With high distortion, varied tempi and a lot of force they drive the melodic but massive sound forward steadily.

Despite the brachial atmosphere that is conveyed by this chequered, sophisticated and versatile soundscape the vocals by Dean and Matt are sung with clear voices without drifting into growling, screaming or grunting. The melodic manner of both singers' voices emphasizes, supports and pleases the musical atmosphere on "The War within Ourselves" a lot.

Tempo-wise the trio easily goes from halting, interrupting or slowly stomping beats up to high-speed riffing and back. Those movements are highlighted by the instruments and their free interchanging between melodic harmonies, roughly distorted attacks or even high-pitched staccati.

Age of Emergence's new EP is a beautiful display of Hard Rock with influence by Heavy Metal and a very strong emphasis on the predicate Progressive. The different impacts do not object each other at all. Instead, the melodical progressive approach to heavy Rock music presented here felicitous display of intelligent rough guitar music.
Contemporarily, the band has planned a tour through Australia in spring. I have my fingers crossed that they can go on tour. Since the lockdown we're all experiencing at the moment, I can only suggest to look for updates on their Facebook page.

Age of Emergence Online:
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