The Swedish band After Earth haven’t had the smoothest road forward. They released a favorably received EP named Before It Awakes during 2020 — in the midst of the pandemic — then suffered some lineup changes but managed to release the 2022 single “From Age to Aeon“. And then, in early 2023, just a few weeks before the recording of their debut album, two of the band’s guitarists departed.
Rather than abandon the enterprise, the remaining three members — Marcus Rydstedt, Anton Vehkaperä, and Olof Öman — forged ahead, picking up additional roles, and managed to get the album recorded (with some guitar solos outsourced to Christoffer Nilsson). And now that album, The Rarity of Reason, is set for release on August 18th, timed to coincide with After Earth‘s European tour supporting Swedish death metal band Mara.
To help spread the word about the album, today we’re premiering a lyric video for a song from it named “Legions“. As the band explain, this song “showcases a heavier side to us than our previous music”, showing “a bit more of our inspiration from purer “death metal”, while preserving the band’s emphasis on melody.
Expressed in raging growls and cauterizing screams, the words of the song expel furious scorn for people who wallow in their victimization and exhorts them to rise up rather than crawl.
The music is equally furious, propelled by darting and slashing riffage and galloping drums, segmented by powerfully jolting grooves and vicious fretwork flurries. Near the height of the savagery, guest soloist Nilsson delivers a spiraling, fleet-fingered spectacle in advance of one final episode of pile-driving brutality and frenzied fury.
Fans of melodic death metal, and especially the well-establish Scandinavian variety, will find a lot to like in this adrenaline-punching, skull-busting track. See for yourselves:
AFTER EARTH is:
Marcus Rydstedt (Vocals)
Anton Vehkaperä (Drums)
Olof Öman (Bass)
Marcelo Vargas Jofré (Guitars: on leave)
Jonathan Ahlin (Live guitarist)
Ludvig Andersson (Live guitarist)
The Rarity of Reason was mixed by Rob Kukla and then mastered by death metal studio legend Fredrik Nordström at Studio Fredman. You’ll find more info about the band, the album, and its release by checking the locations collected through the links below.
PRE-ORDER:
https://afterearth-swe.bandcamp.com/album/the-rarity-of-reason
FOLLOW AFTER EARTH:
https://linktr.ee/afterearthswe
We’re also sharing a video for the album’s first single, “Prometheus“. This one is another high-voltage melodic death metal dynamo, even more heavy-grooved that the new track we’ve just premiered, but also laced with bursts of electronics, eerie wisps of melody, a brief acoustic interlude, and doses of full-throttle battering and vicious fretwork fevers.