Arch Matheos - Winter Ethereal.jpg

Prog Metal giants Arch/Matheos are back and this time they’re here to stay with their new album Winter Ethereal really packing a punch.

“Vermilion Moons,” shifts with the wind. It builds into something seriously epic, the vocals are beautiful and the guitars really lend themselves well to the song. It shifts and turns and the listener is left feeling richer for listening. “Wanderlust,” takes a turn here and there, bringing some new things to the fore. Shifting and turning, with the guitars exploring new melodical conceptions. Once more the vocals are on point, and narrate something fantastical. “Solitary Man,” rocks the house down with some seriously fascinating grips and graps. The vocals bite and snarl their way through to perfection. “Wrath Of The Universe,” twists and turns. Shredding at first before slowing down in the middle, it then begins to move faster with the winds. “Tethered,” delivers on punch and pressure. Slowly fading in before rocking the house down completely.

“Straight and Narrow,” has a thunderous drumming beat and some seriously cool shredding on the guitars that leads to an overall epic number. “Pitch Black Prism,” moves in and out, slowly growing before descending into anarchy and chaos. “Never In Your Hands,” is another hardcore rocker, with an absolute gem of a riff. “Kindred Spirits,” slows things down a little and takes a truly proggy route with psychedelic melodies.

The album is out on 10th May via Metal Blade Records.