As it was with every Memoriam album so far, here I am again to dissect, analyze and point out the badassery of the newest endeavor of Bolt Thrower’s spiritual successor. The war veterans are now in their fifth full length and ‘Rise to Power’ constructs itself from the blueprint of its predecessor ‘To the End’ (2021) by offering the raw truth of death, loss, and war, topics more fitting than even in the current World scenario.
With every new work, Memoriam began to drift away from being a Bolt Thrower extension to form their own image, with less death/doom and a more direct, traditional approach to metal. While there are still some minor changes in this new album music-wise, it’s clear now that the British have blended old and new in a fierce, yet true-to-the-past personality. In fact, ‘Rise to Power’ has a lot of slower tempo moments and that characteristic sense of doom.
The unarguable best passages here, opener “Never Forget, Never Again (6 Million Dead)”, “Annihilation’s Dawn” and “All Is Lost” are the best definitions of the album, tooled with all the best riffs and probably the most diversity, showcasing some respectable tremolo sections in between the crunchy death/doom rhythms. Memoriam’s past materials tended to run a little too long, but this is definitely not the case here; ranging at 44min long, the record has a perfect balance between depth and replay factor.
Other tracks such as “Total War” and “This Pain” objectively show what I mean when I said the band reached its peak in personality. Scott Fairfax excels at both being brutally fast and slowing tempo with heavier-than-thou riffs, while Karl Willets’s unmistakable growls sound as good as ever, even if father time wasn’t particularly benevolent with him and he – understandably so – is not as muscular as when in his prime delivering gems like “Eternal War” and “As the World Burns”.
While the first couple of Memoriam records suffered from being stale and even boring at times, ‘Rise to Power’ follows the steps of ‘To the End’ by being more diverse in construction. The merciless delivery and cataclysmic heaviness we expect from former Bolt Thrower legends is still here and going strong, and lyric-wise it’s exactly what you might want from a band singing about war at the time we have literally dozens of conflicts going on in the World.
As I’ve been saying since I reviewed their very first demo back in 2016, Memoriam creates its sound from emotions and personal meanings. ‘Rise to Power’ does exactly that, being a strong effort worthy of former Bolt Thrower members. The album once again showcases the groove and chaotic aura that made these guys legendary. All in all, it’s just a solid death/doom metal album that sets a good tone for 2023 and states that Willets, Fairfax, Smith, and Healy still have a lot of battles to fight before turning in their dog tags. A very good release.