Not to be confused with Greek atmospheric death metal band of the same name, this third album from the UK-based Horrified is their most expressive record to date. Getting right to the crux of things: The amateurish melodrama of ‘Allure of the Fallen’ keeps it from making many impressive statements but it offers extensive arrangements in tribute to classic melodic death metal. The excess of melodic black metal nuance isn’t as tightly engineered as is needed for the ideal impact of the sub-genre influence. I don’t want to come across as offensive when I use the term “amateurish” when I’m really just pointing towards the ‘halfway there’ delivery of riffs, as if each song is around 5-7 minute simply because they’re moving slower than is needed.

Hesitation marks aren’t such a big ding to the overall appeal of the recording, though. Mixing the bass so low creates the feeling of a cheap Finnish death metal demo from 1994 and the style of melodic death/black metal at times reminds me of Excretion with their loud rock soloing. Unanimated or Eucharist style riffing highlights most tracks as they guitarist aims for adventurous, epic settings. Looking at a list of influences culled from 90’s melodic extreme metal makes perfect sense when listening to the record though I think the album needed more Arghoslent and less October Tide if that makes any sense. The heavy metal riffs would stand out more in shorter compositions as a lot of the melodic Peaceville death/doom type filler stuff doesn’t do anything exciting on the longer form tracks.

For all the butt-scratching I could do over stylistic choices or arrangement this is still easily one of the best melodic death metal records of the year. It comfortably straddles the blurred line of mid-90’s melodic black metal and melodic death metal, and joins a pantheon of gods like A Canorous Quintet and post-‘Far Away From the Sun’ Sacramentum in the style. To ascend they only need a more bold vocal approach, something less distant in the mix, and greater variety of pacing within their extensive compositions. As it is ‘Allure of the Fallen’ is a comforting, warm 45 minutes of familiar melodic death metal from a young band that is doing it better than most.

Savagely recoiled darkness. 3.5/5.0