The Last Reign – Prelude EP

Band: The Last Reign
Title: Prelude EP
Label: Unsigned/Independent
Release date: 11 October 2019
Country: USA
Format reviewed: High-Quality Digital Promo

So, Friday the 4th of October we had a live stream of one of the singles from THE LAST REIGN’s upcoming EP, set to be released on Friday the 11th of October. I hope the stream went well and as many people as possible caught on “Denouement” in order to give these guys the recognition they deserve.

Even if only one track of the three-track EP was streamed, I was lucky enough to get my hands on the other two tracks as well to get a good and early idea of the next album, “Evolution”, will be like. Serving as a teaser for the second full-length album from THE LAST REIGN, I must admit I have become curious to hear it after having gotten a taste of the EP “Prelude”.

For those of you who already heard “Denouement”, you should already be familiar with the badass opening track. The meat on the bones of this track is phat. The in-your-face-drumming along with a meaty guitar following the intro solo personally got me going quite hard. The heavy performance with riffing on par sounds extremely inspired by old In Flames, especially on the pre-chorus, followed by the actual chorus which opens up the sound quite a bit, making this track extremely enjoyable. Pretty straight forward, not too much of out-of-the-box-things happening. It is comfy.

“Annhilation” is clearly heavily In Flames inspired. Much more so than the first track, although I felt as if this one turned to the more melodic side as well as being a bit more cluttered. The soundscape is taken over by the guitars as the vocals are being pushed back. The middle drop beat must be fun to experience live, as it is quite nostalgic to me. Undistorted guitar tone leads the outro signed as a piece of homage to melodic death metal history.

“Only for the Weak” closes the teaser for now. As if the inspiration from In Flames wasn’t enough, here is a pretty good cover of a very good In Flames song.

Overall I’m going to say, a nice little EP with some good highs, although the production will be registered on the lower side of things. 8/10 Julia

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