Devil's Gate Music
Related Articles
An absolutely killer album, with great highs and lows of energy, and everything you’d want from a band of this calibre, Polar have delivered a choice cut of the proverbial music steak here, and have certainly kicked the year off on a strong note for metalcore releases.
We’re led in with a shorter track in ‘Winds of Change’, which I had brief hope of being a Scorpions cover with more screaming, but even if that wasn’t the case, it’s still a well-done slow build into the bigger hitters of the album that introduces us to the talent and the tone right away. Adam Woodford’s clean vocals are lovely, and he keeps them subdued almost to the halfway mark, before both he and the backing get louder, the drop coming with a dynamic drum beat and leading us into some appropriately heavy guitar, for a burst that lasts less than a minute, and starts the short track’s pattern of dipping up and down in speed and aggression.
The second song to delight the ear is ‘Burn’, one of the more recent singles from the album, which immediately kicks us into more rapid-fire drumming from the brilliant Noah See, and lets Woodford show off his talents with more aggressive vocals. The backing harmonies are excellent too and make up an incredibly catchy chorus, that gives way to Fabian Lomas’ slick guitar work as the track continues on.
My favourite song on the album is the closing number, ‘Baptism of Fire’, in part because of the fantastic way in which there’s a perfect shift between the heavy and the more peeled back, woven together as the music unfolds. It’s an incredibly heartfelt song and every part of it only serves to emphasise the deeply personal attachment to it, whether it’s the sheer strength of Woodford’s voice or the reflective and even hauntingly light touch of the backing vocals, or the perfect blend of invigorating and melancholy in the guitar work. Even as the song fades out, you’re still left clinging to the last few gentle notes that lead you into sitting with your thoughts for a moment after the album has finished.
Polar have had a couple of line-up changes over the years, but this is an extremely solid group, who’ve just released a great album, well worth the few years of them sitting down and working on it. Hoping for even bigger things in the future!
‘Everywhere, Everything’ is available now via Arising Empire, more information here.
Review – El Vipond
