Inter Arma are one of those bands that once you hear them you either really, really love them or you figure it’s not for you and you go on with your life. For me this band is the former of the two, and many others agree. Yet somehow despite Inter Arma’s monumentally grand discography hasn’t garnered them the massive following many ground breaking bands achieve, but instead an extremely loyal following. Many of us who know this Richmond band know that with every single album they put out they slowly get better and better somehow, and there was a big question concerning the upcoming album “Paradise Gallows”: will it live up to the Inter Arma name? The answer is oh so satisfying: abso-f*cking-lutely. Nine tracks have never sounded so good than those that are featured on “Paradise Gallows” which is undoubtedly Inter Arma’s crowning achievement as a band. Mixing together several elements from just about all of their previous albums, this band creates an album that mixes together so many sub-genres of metal including doom, black, death, and so much more to where at the end of the day you’ve been given this god-like combination that can flip between being crushingly brutal to ominously psychedelic in an instant and you’d be none the wiser. Whether you desire to be teleported to a dimension of pure wonder and intricacies unfathomable or sheer intensity that could crack the crust of the earth itself as the vocals are the narrators of both scenarios, the guitars flow perfectly between destruction and nirvana-like sensations, a massive bass to end all life itself, drums as the doldrums of the demise of everything all come together so seamlessly to create “Paradise Gallows” and make it what I cannot help but call one of the most ambitious, awesome, and grandiose albums of 2016 by far. Easily Inter Arma’s magnum opus in every way, you are not going to want to pass up “Paradise Gallows”, for it could likely be the most unique and magnificent trip in metal that you will hear all f*cking year and many years to follow.
“Paradise Gallows” releases on July 8th! You can pre-order the album via iTunes here, and stream three tracks off the album on Bandcamp here.
