Northlane
Mesmer

About a month ago Northlane released their new album Mesmer completely out of the blue without any prior warning, which is a cool way to release an album and probably one that could garner some attention for their new release. It is about magnetism between creatures and that sort of thing, to be honest the lyrical themes of the album doesn’t really seem to effect what we are hearing anyway. It doesn’t look very exciting but I have played through this fourth album by Northlane several times now and this is what I have concluded:

First of all the style they present is a modern kind of metalcore, post metal, progressive and that sort of thing. It is an album with a good balance between some screaming growling vocals and powerful stuff and more fine-tuned melodic things. Nothing really ground-breaking for those who have already heard this kind of music. They don’t really offer anything new or fresh, and a mean writer would claim that the only original thing about this album is how they released it. I think the production is good and that the vocalist is decent as well. There are things to like with this album, that much is certain.

Most likeable is the track Solar, the standout hit track on this album – the one I like absolutely best, it is a great track. Had every track on this album been of that calibre this would have been a very impressive album. But they are not that good and that means that this album isn’t particularly impressive, good yes but not impressive. Northlane’s fourth album is a good but not a particularly interesting album in the grand scheme of things.

If you like the genre or Northlane you will probably find this album appealing as well, and it has some agreeable features but the album sounds much like anything else in the genre and it offers nothing we haven’t already heard. And this makes me think that the way they released the album was a much bigger hit than the album itself.

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