It has been a hot minute since I have sat down and pounded out a review for the masses, but a new year brings new music and boy do I have a banger for you all to check out. This band that I will be featuring today is one of the hottest new bands in the scene. I am talking about the Los Angeles quartet Upon Stone. They may only have released one EP prior to this debut full-length but that EP got them signed to Century Media and on some pretty good tours the past year or so.
Upon Stone play melodic death metal and they play it damn good as well. When I first heard their EP back in 2021, I was absolutely floored by it. It took me back to my early 20s when I first discovered melodic death metal, a genre that I still hold near and dear to my heart. This is the kind of music that I can listen to repeatedly without getting tired of it. Drummer Wyatt Bentley was quoted saying “We made a record that we wanted to hear. If I found this record on import at a record store, this would be my favorite new band. I think it's a good sign when you're writing the stuff you would have loved to hear when you're first getting into a sound.” This resonates with me because I remember going to a record store and seeing bands like Dark Tranquillity, In Flames and Darkest Hour on the shelf and being drawn in by the artwork and then being sucked into another dimension by the music itself.
Dead Mother Moon clocks in at just under 32 minutes and I feel that is the perfect amount of time for a new band to showcase their style without shortchanging themselves or over saturating the listener with too much of the same sound. The self-titled first track comes out right from the moment you hit start with crunchy guitars, pulse pounding drums and a raspy vocal delivery from vocalist Xavier Wahlberg. Second track “Onyx Through the Heart” will have you taken back to the late 90’s Gothenburg sound. The melodies on this track make the song absolutely soar and had me headbanging throughout the whole track. An absolute ripper of a song. “Paradise Failed” has a guest vocal feature from Brian Fair of Shadows Fall and his vocals fit perfectly on this track, which is another song that will have listeners headbanging, especially during the ripping guitar solo near the end of the track. “Nocturnalism” is an instrumental track that gives listeners a chance to catch their breath before the last three tracks, the last being a cover of the Misfits “Dig Up Her Bones”. “To Seek and Follow the Call of Lions” and “The Lantern” are the longest tracks of the albums, clocking in at 4 and 5 minutes respectively. I didn’t even really notice that they were a bit longer than the other tracks because the band keeps things moving along without getting stale or repeating themselves.
Upon Stone is a band to keep an eye on now and in the future. I hope they continue to feed us more of their brand of sensational melodic death because I will eat up every offering that they give us. Dead Mother Moon drops Friday January 19 via Century Media Records. I hope this review will convince you to not only check out the album, but also support the band by buying the album. Cheers!
- The Metal Architect
