Persefone - Metanoia (2022)

Over four years have passed since Persefone’s last release, and with “Metanoia”, the band shows the wait was more than worth it. Unleashing nearly one hour of high-octane Melodic/Progressive/Technical Death Metal, this Andorran outfit delivers ten expertly crafted songs filled with intricate details and superb catchiness. If you thought their previous releases were awesome, you are in for a treat with this one.

After the title track atmospheric opener, “Katabasis” shows that if you didn’t think the band’s sound could get any better, you are completely wrong as Einar Solberg’s vocals fully elevate it to new dimensions. Apart from the epic guest vocals, the perfect balance of musical wizardry and harshness is front and center on tracks like “Architecture of the I”, the quirky “Aware of Being Watched”, and the album's first single “Merkabah”.

Other pieces like the dreamy “Leap of Faith” and the monumental “Consciousness Pt3” further elucidate the band’s masterful skills in crafting emotional, technically proficient, and highly melodic pieces filled with mood changes and intricate epic arrangements. Rounding up the release we have the three movements of “Anabasis”, a piece filled with grandeur and hypnotic vocal and melodic passages, paired with a few extra spices courtesy of the guest appearances of Steffen Kummerer and Angel Vivaldi.

As a whole, “Metanoia” is one of those releases that every time you start it over, you discover more and more intricate brilliance embedded into the superbly catchy and dynamic songs presented. Persefone has definitely outdone themselves and separated themselves from the rest, creating a very high bar for anything they release in the future. However, we have thought the same before after “Athma”, and the band keeps just getting better and better with time.

Label: Napalm Records

Release: February 4th, 2022

Genre: Progressive/Melodic Death Metal

Country: Andorra