There has been one debut album that I have been long anticipating, and that is this one! Espionage burst onto the scene in 2015 with their self-titled EP before following up with an excellent second EP, Wings of Thunder, in 2016. Now into 2018, the traditional heavy metal four-piece are releasing their first full-length, Digital Dystopia, an album that both holds elements of the band’s excellent traditional heavy metal style, as well as an active attempt to push their music to new and bolder heights. A point could be made with Digital Dystopia that it’s not a particularly ‘new’ or ‘original’ album. However, I believe the point Espionage is going for with this album and their choice of subgenre as a traditional heavy metal band isn’t so much to try and be ‘different’ from everyone but more to recapture that amazement and wonder of hearing bands of this style in the 1980s. Something that was wholly fresh and exciting and new back then but is almost wholly lost in metal today. To Espionage’s credit, at many points, as with the guitar solo on “Lost in Space”, they even do it better than some bands did back then. “Final Breath” is a decent enough track but falls a bit flatter compared to the more energetic and compositionally interesting tracks that preceded it. The final track of the album, “Wartorn Atrocities” is a hard-hitting gem that puts on full show the musically cohesive nature of the band and gives each member their time to shine, along with special guest appearances from Andrew Hudson (Harlott) and Chris Themelco (Orpheus Omega) that pack a punch. All in all, Digital Dystopia is an excellent, if not imperfect, album. As the band’s debut full-length effort, it is undoubtedly one of the finest you will find in the scene right now and is a genuine treasure trove for the old school metal-hearted in Australia and beyond. Pick it up and judge for yourself.
