I recently caught up with Ezra Haynes, who has recently rejoined the band with a new fire and drive, and it was great to catch up with him and talk about sobriety, life, death, rejoining the band, and the forthcoming album The Ossuary Lens due to unleash on the world April 4th through Metal Blade Records.
Find preorders at: http://www.metalblade.com/allegaeon
For ALLEGAEON, sitting still is not an option. The Fort Collins, Colorado-based group has never allowed itself to stagnate, preferring to thrive on chaos, change, and evolution. Their latest offering, The Ossuary Lens, is their seventh full-length album, but it’s the first with original vocalist Ezra Haynes since his 2015 departure following the Elements Of The Infinite album. Replacing a singer is no easy task, so the fact that Haynes was in a place to rejoin is something to celebrate. The cleaner vocal approach on the last three albums was a fascinating artistic maneuver, one that refreshed ALLEGAEON, but it’s undeniably thrilling to hear Haynes’ graveled larynx back in the fold on this inarguably brutal and technically dazzling slab of work.
The science-based lyrics are as challenging as the progressive musicianship, resulting in a set of songs that simply slay. It’s a sound that Haynes himself refers to as “melotech” (melodic, technical death metal). The Ossuary Lens was recorded with producer Dave Otero at Flatline Audio studio in Denver. It marks the sixth album recorded with Otero. The proof is in the pudding; the sound on The Ossuary Lens pummels the listener, though the ferocity is balanced by the overt melodies. It’s the most triumphant and cohesive body of work that they’ve ever laid down. Lyrically, while not a concept album in the traditional sense, there’s an overarching theme to the new album – The Ossuary Lens is a representation of several different viewpoints of death. Each song essentially is a different topic, however, there is always a different perspective of death tied to each subject. Since the entire album revolves around this overarching theme of death, and the different viewpoints associated with it, the album title The Ossuary Lens is very fitting.
