Miles To Perdition – ‘2084’ (Self-Released)

By Jonny Bakes

Melodic death metal, as a genre, is one that always excites me, as it has such a broad range of styles encompassed within it. From those bands that lean heavily towards the melodic nature leading to some real emotive pieces, to those who take things the other way with some aggressive metal with just a hint of melodic in there. It’s the latter that I’ve picked up today with the latest release from Luxembourg natives Miles to Perdition to follow up their 2014 debut album. With a fairly hefty gap between the debut and the sophomore album, let’s see what these guys have to offer with ‘2084’.

The title itself is a nod to George Orwell’s 1984, the story of the dystopian future where freedom of speech is eradicated, and all must swear allegiance to the party… a little bit close to home perhaps? This is enforced with the opening track that features a spoken extract from the book, with one of my favourite quotes – “If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face – forever.” And that generally sets the tone for the album, it is very aggressive and passionate with some nice hints of melody to string it all together. Ken’s vocals are distinctly brutal and relentless throughout the album which really conveys the harsh nature of the theme they’ve landed on here.

After a couple of listens, it’s difficult to pick out some stand out tracks which can either be a good thing or not so good. I think in this case it’s because all the songs are pretty comparable, there’s nothing that is significantly better than the others, and likewise there’s nothing that stands out as being filler material. It’s quite a level album, which is great for listening to the album as a whole but could make it slightly more difficult to pick singles from it. Nevertheless, the first single from this album was released a few weeks ago in the form of ‘S.O.M.A’.

Like the rest of the album, ‘S.O.M.A’ launches out of the gate with some seriously hard hitting riffs and blast beats galore. The pace of this track only slows down for a brief moment for a tasty breakdown which shows off one hell of a fat bassline that is likely to get the rib cages rattling at their live shows for sure. Because this is a very level album, if you want to get yourself a taste of what the album holds in store, then I would suggest you give this song a chance first. If you love it then you’re bound to enjoy the whole album, and if it doesn’t tickle your musical pickle then I would probably give this album a miss.

So, overall, this was a decent album, but there was nothing here that really got me overexcited (as we all know I can get very over excited about albums). The Orwellian theme and exploration of dystopia throughout the album was a good interesting touch, and certainly what drew my attention to the album in first place, but it doesn’t excite me as much as it possibly could have done. It’s certainly not a bad album mind; I could quite happily listen to it again but then I also won’t be favouring it over the albums that are currently in my rotation. But if you check out ‘S.O.M.A’ and think to yourself “This is exactly what I need right now” then you should get yourself out and pick up the whole album, because you’ll love it!

‘2084’ is out now. You can get your copy HERE.

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