Stray From The Path – Euthanasia LP (UNFD)

Here’s some heavy music to properly start this week. Euthanasia, the ninth album by NY/UK heavy hitters Stray From The Path, drops this Friday, and UNFD was kind enough to share the album in advance with us. Stray From The Path were always known for their socio-political commentary, heavy riffs, profoundly dynamic rhythm section, and top-notch production, so that’s the case with this album as well. Guillotine, III and Bread & Roses, three introductory singles heavily promoted over the web and social media by the band and the record label, are more than solid proof of how this band shapeshifts the boundaries of hardcore music with each new release. After listening to these tracks, you’ll immediately know Euthanasia will be a banger, but as is usually the case, the introductory singles are just the tip of the iceberg.

Euthanasia carries ten superb demonstrations of how hardcore music still could sound innovative, fresh, and unique without losing the essentials of the genre. The fundamentals of hardcore music are there, built into the foundations of their sound, but Stray From The Path are clever enough not to stop there. Quite the contrary, you’ll hear many other ingredients that complement their primary sonic direction. Therefore, you’ll notice how the band incorporated only the best properties of metalcore, mathcore, post-hardcore, beatdown, djent, hip-hop, industrial, ambient, and various elements borrowed from electronic music. Don’t be surprised if you stumble upon some other ingredients while listening to this brilliant album. Stray From The Path embrace analog and digital methods to achieve the desired sound, so expect various effects, samples, and ambiances infused beneath or above standard instrumentations.

As a guitar player, I must admit Stray From The Path included some impressive shreds, licks, virtuosities, and riffs on this album. This album will be right up your alley if you like the experimentations with the guitar sound, mainly because there are many of them included along the way. The combination of various shredding technics and those guitar effects are two of many qualities included in Euthanasia. The most impressive thing about these acrobatics is they’re not overwhelming the primary sonic direction of the band. Quite the contrary, these experimentations uplift their sound on an entirely level, and you’ll still notice that recognizable Stray From The Path’s orchestrations. The heavily distorted bass guitar has multiple roles on this release. It acts like a second guitar with all the distortion included over the top. Besides that, it provides massive low-end tones that further enhance the beforementioned riffs. Nevertheless, it also supports the exceptional rhythmic performance by contributing a portion of dynamics. The drumming performance bursts with complex rhythmic sequences, various acrobatics, accentuations, and fills. Of course, nothing would sound that good without powerful vocals that range from classic hardcore shouts to more aggressive screams. Each track has been flawlessly composed, recorded, and produced, so Euthanasia sounds incredible from scratch to finish. Head over to UNFD for more information about ordering this album.