Visitant - Rubidium - review
Visitant - Rubidium - review
Tracklist
01. Unworldly02. Briars
03. Starless
04. Rubidium
05. Fodder
06. Envy's Lament
07. Moon Bathe
A review by
musclassia September 23, 2025
Admittedly, rubidium is only responsible for the purple colour in some fireworks, but the element’s role in atomic clocks and high-precision timing is indicative of a group that have timed the record’s gestation period perfectly. It might be a stretch to call Visitant a supergroup, but with collective backgrounds of its members in the likes of Unaligned, Pathogenic, Scale The Summit, Abiotic and Voraath, the quartet have pedigree in the realm of extreme metal, particularly tech-death. While aspects of that genre can be heard at times across Rubidium, the album’s overarching style takes a different form.
That style, in not too many words, is a prog-leaning mix of symphonic black and technical death metal, but leaning more so towards the melodic blackened end of the spectrum. The symphonic aspects are more prevalent in the opening half of the tracklist, as both “Unworldly” and “Starless” open with classical piano before veering more in a Cradle Of Filth/early Abigail Williams direction. “Unworldly” has sweeping keys, melodic blackened tremolo riffs, and piercing shrieks, along with plenty of blast beats, but around the halfway mark does take a detour towards a more dissonance-tinged death metal sound, albeit temporarily. The ‘symphonic’ aspects of the album mostly come from exuberant keyboards performed by drummer Anthony Lusk-Simone, but there are also some dramatic choirs glimpsed near the end of this opening song.
The following song “Briars” has many of the same features, but does also bring new elements to the table, most notably the use of vocoder effects in the chorus to create something of a blackened Cynic vibe, as well as exchanging tremolo and blasts for some groovy technical riffing in between the chorus repeats. “Starless” eschews full-pelt extremity to an even greater extent, making good use out of a somewhat technical yet melodic riff that is framed in several different ways over the track’s duration to keep it fresh and engaging; it also has one of the album’s more attention-grabbing solos.
Coming in just a bit over an hour in total length, Rubidium nevertheless offers a decent level of variety, particularly on the vocal front. While Chelsea Marrow predominantly uses blackened shrieks and lower growls, there’s several clean and semi-clean vocal approaches also heard at various point. The vocoder in “Briars” has already been mentioned, but the title track and “Fodder” each feature more grounded and gruff semi-clean vocals in their choruses; I’m admittedly not particularly clean on their delivery, which is somewhat snarly, but the powerful and passionate singing in the latter stages of the chorus in “Fodder” is more effective to my ears. At the other end of the spectrum are the almost ethereal cleans that appear in the album’s final couple of songs.
There’s also variety on the instrumental front; with the symphonic aspects dialled down somewhat after the opening tracks, a blackened death approach instead emerges, taking the sinister blackened tonality and applying it to riffing more rooted in death metal. However, then comes “Envy’s Lament” to completely shake things up; initial synth-laden black metal blasting aside, there’s driving melodeath riffs, metalcore chugs, and shimmering post-rock tremolos in a chorus that is fully melodic and approachable. It’s a significant shake-up, and one further exacerbated by the middle Eastern flavours in the closer “Moon Bathe”.
In spite of its brevity, Rubidium is a pretty well-rounded debut that lives up to the promise of the talent behind it. Not every one of the ideas on this album works, and there is a slight disconnect between the Cradle Of Filth-inspired opening songs and the second half of the tracklist, but far more of this album pays off than doesn’t.
Written on 23.09.2025 by
Written on 23.09.2025 by
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