FIFTH ALLIANCE, THE - The Depth Of The Darkness (Sealed) (LP)

Press of 500 copies on gold or black - Mastered for vinyl in 2019 by Brett Boatright at Audiosiege The Fifth Alliance was conceived in Breda, The Netherlands late 2006. The newly formed band took inspiration from chaotic hardcore bands like Coalesce, Botch, Converge combined with heavy acts like Isis, Cult Of Luna, Poison The Well, which resulted in the band self-released EP, 'Fear Consumption', in 2007. Their follow-up EP 'Reflections On Consciousness' saw the light of day through Crossfirecult Records in 2009, packed with dissonant riffs, rhythmic twists and heavy grooves. Playing numerous shows strengthened the band as a solid, tight playing force to be reckoned with. No Clean Singing blog states on the new album: "The Depth Of The Darkness is the third full-length by the Dutch band (from Breda) The Fifth Alliance, but it is my own first encounter with their music. Actually, all I've encountered so far is a track named "Black". It not only makes a great companion to the first three songs in today's collection, it's just fucking great all by itself. It seemed to flow so well from the first three songs in this collection. It amalgamates giant, heaving, low-end tones and bone-cracking drum beats; glinting guitar notes and wailing clean vocals; haunting atmospheres of shivering moodiness and building tension; and a thundering eruption of black-metal ferocity that takes the seeds of pain in the music and makes them flower in thorns. In that eruption, the riffing buzzes and boils in a grim torrent of sound as the drums and the bass leave wreckage in their wake, and the vocals vent scarring torment. The music becomes spectral and chilling after that storm of sound (the vocals are particularly insane at this point), but it's seductive as well as disturbing. Those ringing notes you hear at the end don't go away even after the silence falls. What a brilliant song_."