It seems to be an increasingly common event in today’s turbulent music scene that bands see departures in their ranks; whether this subsequently derails the band completely or becomes a benefit. For Entheos, it is firmly a case of the latter. Stripping to a two-piece consisting of vocalist Chaney Crabb and multi-instrumentalist Navene Koperweis, the pair have been able to write with less compromise and more focus on their own vision. The result of which, Time Will Take Us All (Metal Blade), certainly feels like fine-tuned creative pairing is a strong step up. 

Where previous albums, including the most recent Dark Future (Spinefarm), fit the Tech Metal mould with heightened diversity within, Time Will Take Us All (Metal Blade) is a continuation of this in part, but also immediately sounds increasingly brooding and dark compared to its predecessors. This is reflected both musically and in some of the lyrical content. Album opener ‘Absolute Zero’, whilst lyrically approaching mental health and darker thoughts, musically it feels structurally consistent with Technical Death Metal at first, with multiple tempo shifts and in quick succession, before the midway point it hits a melodic point which feels releasing amongst the chaos. 

It also becomes apparent that, particularly in the earlier stages of the album, songs flow into one another and thus are to be experienced as a whole. The suspenseful and stripped passage which ends ‘Absolute Zero’ becomes a continued aspect in the proceeding ‘In Purgatory’ and then briefly into ‘The Interior Wilderness’. There is purpose in the song structure which some of their peers do not showcase. Further surprises come later on with ‘I Am The Void’ which shirks the intricacy of prior for a sense of groove, alongside Crabb showing an increased range in vocals, adding poignant clean singing and screams amongst the more guttural vocals. Even the closing track ‘Time Will Take Us All’ utilises acoustic instrumentation from the offset. 

Technical Death Metal is a notoriously crowded arena and it is excellent to see a band like Entheos show ascension in those ranks, if by and large by becoming a wholly more progressive and experimental entity. No longer needing to compromise their vision, this could have easily fallen under due to a lack of restraint but instead, the increased diversity in almost every facet has only seen this band grow exponentially into an exciting and creative force. The more tantalising aspect is that they can go even further.

Buy the album here:

https://www.metalblade.com/entheos/

8 / 10

CHRIS TIPPELL