Earthside – Let The Truth Speak
Earthside – Let The Truth Speak
Music Theories Recordings
Release Date: 17/11/23
Running Time: 77:31
Review by Oli Gonzalez
8.5/10
In this crazy world of music, there’s the million dollar question of how does a band ‘make it’ or ‘breakthrough’. Some focus on gigging extensively and relentlessly to build their name. Some invest heavily in their live show. Some like to play the long game and pour all their efforts into the studio, much like Earthside. It’s been 8 years since their previous release, “A Dream In Static”. 8 years! I’m trying to think how much the world has changed in that time and how much my life has changed since 2015. In a world where a little and often digital release strategy is becoming more and more popular, this could be seen as a huge gamble. Though looking at the expertise within the Earthside ranks, it’s safe to say they know what they’re doing! Especially with music graduates from Yale and Harvard universities, a leading journalist and a collective abundance of musical pedigree and talent. Why on earth (no pun intended) has it took me so long to find these guys? Their upcoming release “Let The Truth Speak” is the epitome of playing this long game, and I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it.
My initial thoughts were… Wow! It’s been a while since I’ve heard anything so thought-provoking, complex and multi-layered. This is progressive rock at its finest! The variety in the composition is amazing too. They can go from gentle, soothing, and lullaby-like to overwhelming and absolutely crushing tones! Much in the same way post-metal giants Amenra often do. This is prominent in multiple areas of the album but perhaps more so in the opening tracks ‘We Who Lament’, and ‘But What If We’re Wrong’. I think some modern metal artists could learn a lot from Earthside. Some seem to think you need to tune down to drop F and use telephone cables as strings to get a heavy sound. While this is true to some extent, this approach gets boring very quickly. Earthside prove here that you don’t need to do this, and skilled compositions and emotion will trump downtuning for heaviness any day of the week.
I particularly enjoyed the use of orchestral arrangements in the compositions. I believe they used a legit orchestra rather than just synths too, for added authenticity, again detailing how much effort the band have gone to in order to make “Let The Truth Speak” happen. These arrangements are perhaps most prominent in ‘Tyranny’.
We see multiple guest musicians, including musicians from genre heavyweights Leprous and Tesseract. This should be seen as a statement of intent from Earthside. While the musicians slide under the radar somewhat, there’s some particularly strong vocal performances, particularly in ‘Denial’s Aria’. However, my favourite had to be in ‘The Lesser Evil’. I particularly enjoyed the gospel/soul style vocals, and the sheer energy they offered. When combined with the djent style musical component in this song, this is something I’ve never seen before. Maybe we’ll coin a new term – soul-djent? soul-core? (or maybe I’m just being silly here). In either case, I’d highly recommend this track if you have no time for any others. Actually no, I take that back. There’s so much quality on this album, but my favourite has to be ‘Denial’s Aria’. Another song that’s a bit more stripped back and perhaps less complex than the others, but one in which raw human emotion is the order of the day, and this delivers this in spades. It’s the vocal performance that really sells it for me, such a soothing yet powerful voice that truly gets you in the feels! I found myself humming along to this and having the chorus play in my mind’s ear for several days after. Which speaks volumes about its impact on me.
For all the atmospheric and crushing parts, the band stripped things right down for ‘Watching The Earth Sink’. This presents a welcome change of pace, and adds a more melodic and ambient quality to the mix. This is also one of the instrumental tracks on this album, if you like to immerse yourself in the musical experience and not necessarily focus on the vocal portion.
For the excellence of this album, I do have one critique. The band have described themselves as ‘truly an international affair’, collaborating with artists all over the world. Each guest artist offers something unique to their respective track(s). However, this creates a problem for me. Almost like a substitute teacher, you know you can’t get too attached because they’re not your real teacher. That’s how it feels here. Especially as Earthside are a new band to me, I still haven’t formed an identity for them yet. Additionally, how would the logistics of getting all the musicians together for live performances work? Is this possible? With that being said, I kind of like the community aspect. Especially as I’m pretty curious to check out the artists and their respective bands now. The point I’m trying to make is that guest artists can be great, but there’s a fine line between enhancing your sound and overusing them.
In addition, I would say this is a specialist album, for an equally specialist type of listener. This is a long album with some equally long songs of roughly 10 minutes in length which may deter casual listeners, but make progressive rock/metal fans salivate! I’d say that’s more testament to Earthside for doing things their own way and writing music in their own image.
“Let The Truth Speak” represents a statement of serious intent, and features some genuinely world-class musicianship from a collection of the finest musicians on the planet. Earthside gambled by playing the long game and throwing all their eggs in one basket for this record. I think this gamble will pay off though and we’ve got an album that’s going to get people talking when it reaches the public.
TRACKLISTING:
01. We Who Lament (feat. Keturah)
02. But What If We’re Wrong (feat. Sandbox Percussion)
03. Tyranny (feat. Pritam Adhikary of Aarlon)
04. Pattern Of Rebirth (feat. AJ Channer of Fire From The Gods)
05. Watching The Earth Sink
06. The Lesser Evil (feat. Larry Braggs & Sam Gendel)
07. Denial’s Aria (feat. Keturah, VikKe & Duo Scorpio)
08. Vespers (feat. Gennady Tkachenko-Papizh & VikKe)
09. Let The Truth Speak (feat. Daniel Tompkins of TesseracT & Gennady Tkachenko-Papizh)
10. All We Ever Knew And Ever Loved (feat. Baard Kolstad of Leprous)
LINE-UP:
Jamie van Dyck [Guitars, backing vocals, programming, keyboards]
Ben Shanbrom [drums, backing vocals]
Frank Sacramone [Keyboards, synthesizers, programming, percussion, guitar]
Ryan Griffin [Bass, backing vocals].
LINKS:
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