Released by: Independent
Release Date: April 7th, 2023
Genre: Progressive Power Metal
Links: https://medevil.bandcamp.com/album/mirror-in-the-darkness
Line Up:
Liam Collingwood – Vocals
Gary Cordsen – Guitar
Brett Gibbs – Guitar/Backing Vocals
Eric Wesa – Bass/Backing Vocals
Chris Malcolmson – Drums
Tracklist:
1 – Dead Before Birth
2 – Among Thieves
3 – Pary For Me
4 – The Signal
5 – Smoke And Mirrors
6 – Weight Of The Crown
7 – Mirror In The Darkness
8 – Gateways
9 – Veiled
10 – No Peace In Rest
Roaring out of Chilliwack, British Columbia comes to Medevil, with their sophomore effort. Their debut ‘Conductor Of Storms’ from 2016 was well received with some excellent reviews which likened them to a cross between Metallica, Mastodon, and Metal Church. With this effort, the band decided to take a bold step into different areas with some songs getting heavy with drop-C tunings and an overall darker sound. There is also a poignant dedication to drummer Chris Malcolmson who passed away shortly after recording the album.
Things start all dark and heavy on ‘Dead Before Birth’ which takes us on a melodic almost proggy metal journey like Metal Church jamming with Udo Dirkschneider. ‘Among Thieves’ is a bit more old-school metal with some melodic thrashy riffage before the jagged stop/start chug fest of ‘Pray For Me’ brings some synths over the top and Liam Collingwood gives us his cleaner voice. Check out the guitar work too, which is superb. ‘The Signal’ brings even more melody with a modern spidery riff then we get a brief acoustic and synth interlude before the majestically dark and heavy ‘Weight Of The Crown’ which brings the Udo voice back. The title track is a mid-paced crunchy heavy rocker before the awkward start of ‘Gateways’ – stay with it because it turns into a superb modern metal banger with a great vocal melody and grinding riff. ‘Veiled’ brings a funky rhythm that soon turns into a jazzy thing. The final cut ‘No Peace In Rest’ brings a Metal Church-style epic full of chugging riffs, quieter movements, and more of those superb lead lines from Cordsen and Gibbs.
Medevil has put their thinking caps on for this because there are some really interesting songs on this. There’s something for everyone on this so it will appeal universally to metalheads everywhere. Something is happening in Canada because this is about the tenth release I’ve reviewed, and they are all of high quality and pretty diverse. The question is – what will Medevil do next? They’re going to have to go some to top this.
Score: 9/10
Reviewed by: Smudge
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