Cleveland, Ohio’s Along Came a Spider (not to be confused with the book or movie) are offering up their sophomore release, Resurgence, and as far as metal (and sometimes thrash) goes, this is near the top of the pack. With vaguely Christian themes, but not overtly so, Resurgence simply just rocks out in the way that a good metal album should. It’s glossy and slick, but there are a bevy of nice touches, such as the remotely classical-in-nature opening title track, and “A Link to the Past” opens with an eight-bit keyboard riff that makes it sound like the score for a video game. And there’s some great vocal interplay: there are emo-ish vocals, but every now and then there’s some guttural scream-o singing. Just about everything here is fired up and that makes it a compelling and well built album worth your time and money. There are no obvious highlights – as much as I love “A Link to the Past” – and the record works as a cohesive whole. It’s quite astounding, actually, given its top-notch production on what is essentially an indie label.
To give you a sense of just how incredibly solid this disc is, consider that a choir is utilized on “All Gods”, which shows the group basically pulling off all the stops. And for those looking for crushing guitar riffs interspersed with some solo noodling, you’ll find a lot to love here. Basically, Resurgence is entertainment, and highly enjoyable stuff at that. I hear nods to past metal bands here and there, such as the thudding guitar riff on “All Gods” that reminds me a lot of Prong (and Prong should get a lot more love than they did). Granted, your love of this LP will hinge on how varnished you love your metal – those who come looking for feedback and distortion are going to be hugely disappointed. And, yes, there’s even a reference to Game of Thrones, which makes this the third album I’ve reviewed in the past year that does so. Still, Resurgence is highly commendable and those looking for great production techniques in their hard rock and metal are going to gobble this up.