Since Between The Buried And Me have recently crossed over from metalcore into straight up progressive metal, Becoming The Archetype have now stepped up and taken the crown as the most epic metalcore band in the genre. With Devin Townsend behind the mixing board on this attempt, and a slew of impressive instrumentation and musicianship, together the team delivered one of the more solid metal albums of the year with Dichotomy. Only a very few quirks keep this record from being the very best.
Becoming The Archetype have gone through a couple of member changes since their debut record, Terminate Damnation. After losing a few of the early guitarists, the band gained guitarist Alex Kenis of Aletheian who was most likely responsible for the ever so progressive The Physics Of Fire, released just last year. After losing Alex, the band regained original guitarist Jon Star. The mix up of the two guitarists may have helped the band keep diversity between the last two albums, as Dichotomy isn’t quite as beefy as the previous album is, but that doesn’t mean it’s not as good as The Physics of Fire. It may even be better.
Not only are the songs very well written on this record, but they couldn’t have been better produced, proving that Devin Townsend truly is a genius at what he does. One may not hear more soundscapes and clever effects present in a metalcore album as much as they will on this record. The addition of guest appearances from Devin himself, Ryan Clark of Demon Hunter, and soprano Susan Richter really keep the songs fresh, and although the track lengths may have been cut down a bit from the previous two records, the production really keeps these tracks sounding more epic than ever.
Speaking of that overused word, you really can’t leave it out when listening to the final track, “End of an Age”, which sounds like a medley between Becoming The Archetype, Opeth, and Amon Amarth. The repetitive yet beautiful ending to the song is a perfect way to cap off a great album, although it ends much faster than you would like. A song or two more would have made up for the shorter song lengths to keep this album ending a bit too fast.
Becoming The Archetype have successfully written three very solid records and are well on their way to securing their stand in a fizzling genre. With songs like “Mountain of Souls” and “Deep Heaven”, there’s no doubt they are pushing the envelope, creating the most unique sounds in modern metalcore, and diversifying the scene. Be sure to check out Dichotomy for your fix of earth quaking metal.
Score: 4.0/5
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