Hello Metalheads, this is John with another review for you!  “Calamity” by From Dying Suns came out on May 3rd, 2024 and I have been listening to it pretty regularly since.  This is the bands debut and they did one hell of a job with their first full musical outing.  

I didn’t hear about this band until someone shared it in one of the many death metal groups that I am in on Facebook.  The album is self released without any label to promote.  They are from Quebec and all of their social media posts are in English and also in French which is very cool!  

Their sound has an old school style death metal feel with melodic and sometimes technical and progressive aspects all over the place.  Some of the bands that I think they draw inspiration from are The Black Dahlia Murder, Children of Bodom(without the keyboard) and even Revocation because of how thrashy they can be.

The vocalist has a very good range, using very high shrieks most of the time with mid tier and even lower growls for accents.  I really like how the bass is very forward in the mix and is very audible for 99% of the album.  The lines that this bass player leads us on are all over the place.  Sometimes he is following along with the guitars, but the really great times he is playing counterpoint and leading us in another direction altogether.  The lead guitar absolutely shreds when they need to, but the riffs and groove are always top notch as well.  The harmonies that both guitar players create in almost every song is very soothing to hear.  Even when they are playing brutal head banging riffs, they somehow sneak in really well crafted harmonies and little melodic lines.  Last but certainly not least, the drummer is very consistent in his delivery.  He plays great with every feel that they go for.  Blast beats, fast double bass drumming, thrash and downright old school metal are all within his mastery.  

The album cover of this album resembles a PlayStation 2 game’s cover from that era of video games.  They certainly pay homage to games that you would find on the system and others.  The lyrics and stories from this album are ones of dungeon crawlers, vampire slayings and graveyard exploring.

The moment “Calamity” the track starts we are pummeled by sweeping guitar and technical drumming.  This is a short but very sweet kind of track and it is the first full track of the album.  The main “chorus” section features a melodic guitar line with the main riff underneath that.  The section after is the same tempo but it’s in half time with very fast picking and double bass drum.  

“Claustrophobic” starts with a very thrash inspired guitar riff, which builds into very good grooving section.  This song has very chaotic sections amplifying the dark and doom filled lyrics that accompany instrumentals.  There is a very short guitar solo that absolutely shreds and sweeps its way through our ears that has very fast double bass drumming.  Shortly after this a second guitar solo with a different feeling.  This one is more based on feeling and less about technical proficiency, it has more of a sense of melody which is a welcome change.  

My standout track for this album is “Undergrowth”.  It starts out with agressive blast beats and guitar shredding.  When the vocals come in they switch to a thrash beat but keep everything else the same.  The whole song is an absolute blast to enjoy everytime it comes on.  It is a nonstop headbangers ball from the first to last note.  Even when the song has a brief section when the vocalist is delivering a description of the horrifying witchcraft that the main character has woken up to, the rest of the band excluding the drummer keeps the beat alive.  If this was another band I would think they were building up to a bone crushing breakdown, but they pull the rug out and keep the drive and head banging the same in the best way.  After this the feel totally switches up but keeps the same tempo and drive then movs along to a solo, which again switches the feel up mid solo.  This shred-fest eventually brings us back to a groove that we encountered earlier in the song to end out the track.  

This album may have been a surprise when it came out, but I will most definitely keep listening.  My rating of this album is a 8.5 out of 10 and currently have it very close to my top ten of this year.  The way they weave together melodic, technical, progressive and even thrash metal in pone has me wanting more from this band.  Make sure to give this band a like, listen and even share. All of their links will be 

https://www.facebook.com/share/12Bg8WvrDBJ/?mibextid=LQQJ4d

https://music.apple.com/us/album/calamity/1737553402

https://fromdyingsuns.bandcamp.com/album/calamity