It seems as though that, in the recent years at least, the core community has seen an influx of 'sludgewave' or downtempo-esque artists making their way onto the scene. Some are pretty legit and stick out in some way (whether it be vocally or riff-wise), but they mostly just kinda blend in and drone left and right. With that being said, I didn't really expect Reflections to make a comeback any time soon to be perfectly honest. Their mildly lengthy hiatus over, the Minnesota-based five piece band's changed their direction a little bit, taking on a more deathcore oriented lead sound and a hell of a lot more chugging breakdowns to boot. They're also back with a new twelve track album under their sleeves, which has been self-released as far as I'm aware, and that means we may be in for a surprise or two perhaps, right? Let's find out!
First track opens up with some instrumental feedback and the good ole breakdown/drawn out low growl vox courtesy of the standard downtempo formula. Not something I expected, to be fair, but it really overstays its welcome, especially within the opening song. The lyricism right from the get go, isn't the worst I heard but it's just really edgy for the sake of it and not even in a clever way, just kind of there to try to be bold and sometimes it works, but in other times the high vox kinda get in the way of me enjoying their low growl counterparts. The conflicting vocal tones are hit or miss, but the production quality is rather good for the music, so there's that as well. Thankfully in 'From Nothing', we are treated to some of that familiar djenty soundtrack we're used to hearing from this band, though there are some techy parts thrown in the background that kinda reminded me of Rings of Saturn or Enterprise Earth for some odd reason. Overall, though, this song wasn't too shabby, especially in the guitar work department. A couple other tracks I could recommend are 'Dismal' for the same familiar oldschool Reflections sound as 'From Nothing' in addition to 'Samsara' for those latent clean vocals and the soothing melodies and overall progression. One main issue I had with this release was the long, drawn out intros to the songs, which are kind of pointless and all too frequent. However, I thought 'Samsara' did the droning intro bit well in comparison. 'Isolation' may just be the worst offender when it comes to shoving as many chugga-chug breakdowns down our throats and ear holes as possible into one modestly lengthy track, although there are certain other songs like the aforementioned and one or two others that do the proggy metalcoreXdowntempo deathcoreXdjent combo rather well and in moderation. This one is generally a mixed bag throughout.
Okay I admit I guess at the end of the day I didn't really have the most to say about the new Reflections release. With a name that reminds me of a certain 80s flick that I might revisit upon finishing this review, I will close out with some short key points and spare you all the details. To clarify, I don't believe that this is a poorly written or performed album in any sort of calibre, the score itself suggests that much. However, I just thought that, while the overall sound surprised me at times since I didn't expect it, I still thought that the all too familiar formula that was carried into Willow felt a bit tiresome with all the droning chugs and cliche vox. Don't get me wrong, it does have its slightly technical and nuanced moments like in some of the songs mentioned prior...but, as is, this one just didn't really pull me in as much as the band's previous works. For a comeback, it may disappoint certain fanatics. But if you ain't too picky about the genre of deathcore or heavier metalcore itself in the vein of Oceans Ate Alaska or Wage War then this one might contain some entertaining bits for you. Otherwise, it gets some points in my book for branching out a bit and stands as a slightly above average effort from Reflections.
Fave Tracks: 'From Nothing', 'Samsara'
**This release is available now here!**
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-Review by: Dave Raffy
Musician, reviewer, fan & promoter
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