AREA 51

Hailing from sunny California comes a brand new head-turner formed by high school teachers and brothers in the spirits of math, metal and humanism, Adam Denlinger (vocals, also singer of MaYaN) and Bill Logan (guitar).
Both of them being passionate composers and former (resp. current) guitar students of Chris Broderick (In Flames, ex-Megadeth) as well as mathematicians, they’ve got an excellent understanding of composition, arrangement and logic that interlinks their artistic minds while creating a harbor of consistency, in which they and guitarist Trent Tilton are hosting a stage for quite some illustrious guests to perform on.
And guests there are plenty on the debut album in the making – chiming in from Septicflesh, In Flames, Pestilence, Persefone, MaYaN, and more.
To give us an idea of what’s cooking, we now get an early sneak peak at AREA 51’s hyperactive heavy metal with ‘Victims’, their first video single.
The sinister piece, which deals with the fight against date rape, has been filmed in one of the largest mud caves of the Californian deserts, hinting at the mindset of perpetrators of aforementioned crime being that of cavemen.
Albeit a masterpiece of coherent powerful songwriting, ‘Victims’ does a strikingly good job at obfuscating its actual genre.
There’s traces of prog and epic there that get beaten the shit outta it by brutal attacks of death and old school US black metal.
The sheer insanity of Adam Denlinger’s vocal performance – ranging from deep, meaty growls all the way up to the slobbering shrieks of a cacodaemon – gives this posthuman roleplay a face to remember.
The transition completes when Adam, upheaved by the trumpets of doom, breaks character in order to grant us his sustained, wailing homage to the epic tragedy of a classic Mercyful Fate song.
There’s so much love here for the weird kaleidoscope of heavy metal and all its shimmering facets that have been contributed by numerous sub genres over time.
And the careful composing by Adam, Bill and Jack Driessen (ex-MaYaN, ex-After Forever), the intense drumming by both David Folchitto (ex-Fleshgod Apocalypse) and Michiel van der Plicht (Pestilence), the mastering by Joost van den Broek of Sandlane Studios (MaYaN, Epica, Ayreon, Powerwolf etc.) – it all ensures that this love comes across.