“I am here to tell you a story; a story that will torture your thoughts by day and poison your dreams by night,” the crude, ghostly voice states as violins screech amongst it, from the first track, ”Curse Of The Virgin Canvas”, of 6-peice metal core outfit Alesana‘s latest album, The Emptiness. The 13-track comeback album from the group is a must hear album for any screamo fan, as it highlights what the group is capable of.
It’s difficult to imagine that it’s been over 2 years since Alesana’s last album, Where Myth Fades To Legend, and they’ve come back with the full power of a harsh screaming and a symphony of madness. But instead of coming up with an entirely new repertoire to feed in to our ears, the band has simply emphasized what they’re made of; high pitched scream-driven cries of love and death.
In comparison with their previous music, The Emptiness is edgier, with, at times, recordings of what sounds merely like the cries of someone dying in a empty room, but also more powerful, in that there is a lot of percussion-driven parts and a faded strings section in the background to tie it all up. I’m left, at various parts of the record, feeling like I’m at the final scene of a thriller movie, with the orchestra playing and a spine-chilling prose filling my head.
One must digress, however, to the fact that the record seems to have a lot of mechanics behind it, a lot of studio edited cuts; which brings the questions as to what some of these songs might sound like live. As part of releasing a good, full-bodied record, I believe it’s necessary to have the ability to perform the exact same song that’s found of the album—and with all the added harmonic sounds and the spoken word, who’s to say that Alesana will be able to keep the same dynamics as they’ve laid out in this album, while performing them on stage?
Nevertheless, The Emptiness certainly delivers with the same style of crunchy metal core that they defined for themselves in their previous releases. My track of choice from this album is “Heavy Hangs the Albatross”; it’s one of the slower tracks on the album, and sort of offers a little bit of a breather for me before rushing in to “The Lover”.
Rating: 
I’m awed by their sound on this record. After reading the chapters located in the album cover, I fully grasped the album’s concept. Now when I listen to the tracks I hear a whole new melody. If you haven’t read the story to go along with The Emptiness, I whole heartedly recommend it!! Now I can’t stop listening to it, how they put together all the little details in the lyrics to accompany the story.. It’s truly phenomenal! Ahh, perfect