Alarum
Eventuality...

They are not the first to have done it, yet...
And yet one cannot help but be fascinated by how these Alarum have carried forward a musical discourse initiated by bands that went down in metal history like Atheist and Cynic rather than the seminal Watchtower.
Originally from Australia, already home to at least unconventional bands such as Alchemist and Psycroptic, Alarum reached the milestone of their first album only in 1999, thus seven years from the formation of the band, to take the big step only five years later with this beautiful "Eventuality".
As mentioned before, a product of the most experimental metal albums of the early nineties, "Eventuality" is one of those albums where the musicians do not simply follow in the footsteps of the great masters, but instead tend to reinterpret the music in a way that makes it entirely recognizable: it is evident how, unlike the previously mentioned bands, Alarum, while always maintaining a technical death/thrash imprint where technical demonstration plays a primary role, try to never lose sight of the melodic sense while not giving up the typical thrash aggressiveness or death violence.
From the first two songs "Velocity" and "Sustained Connection", one cannot help but notice how they, while constantly searching for instrumental refinements (a rhythm section in continuous change and evolution, riffs and solos always very articulated and complex), maintain a truly enviable taste for melody that brings to mind some of the best works in the American progressive metal tradition.
Of course, as is typical in this musical style, the musicians, in this case too, try to draw some cues from a certain very progressive jazz fusion, as in the case of the intro to "Remote Viewing", which then transforms into one of the simultaneously most violent and progressive pieces of the entire platter, or again in the short instrumental "Boundless Intent Part I", which in its very delicate stride inevitably brings to mind the more melodic works of what is perhaps the most famous interpreter of Australian fusion guitar, namely Frank Gambale.
For the rest, the album moves more or less on very technical thrash/death coordinates where the progressive metal vein is increasingly felt, alternating moments of tranquility with others decidedly more restless and nervous, with the exception of the several short instrumental pieces, four in total, in which there is a certain "dependency" on the sound developed by the Americans Maudlin Of The Well.
Flaws? There aren't any, or at least formally no: aesthetically the album appears free from any imperfections, sounding extremely elegant and balanced in every part and also having a recording of truly exceptional quality, with the only note to be addressed to the emotional aspect which in some brief passage seems a little relegated to the background; nothing fundamental, but this could always make someone frown.
In conclusion, one cannot help but notice how with this "Eventuality" Alarum have been able to give new vital energy to a genre that was inevitably starting to seem a bit stale and tired, thanks to a fresh album, capable of picking up a heavy legacy that seems not to have intimidated our three young Australians at all.

Line-up:
Mark Palfreyman - Vocals and bass
Mark Evans - Guitars
Rob Brens - Drums and percussion

Tracklist:
1) Velocity
2) Sustained Connection
3) Lost Pleiad
4) Receiver
5) Remote Viewing
6) Inertial Grind
7) Cygnus X-1
8) Throughout The Moment
9) Woven Imbalance
10) Boundless Intent (Part 1)
11) Boundless Intent (Part 2)
12) Subject To Change
13) Event Duality
14) Audio Synthesis
15) Reconditioned