The Canadian trio Riftwalker have received quite a bit of well-deserved attention at our site this year, with Andy Synn lavishing praise on their late-2016 album Green & Black, and then following that review more recently with an interview of the band. Now it’s our pleasure to host the premiere of a drum play-through video for one of the many outstanding tracks off Green & Black — “Engineer Their Consent“.
The video was filmed by Dean Lamb of Archspire, with audio recorded by Dylan Charles of Apprentice.
As Andy explained in his review, Riftwalker’s music is “complex, catchy, and occasionally rather crushing”, the result of “an eclectic fusion of Progressive Death and Thrash Metal in the vein of Sadus/Atheist/Coroner, with a heavy focus on intricate compositions, impeccable musicianship, and refined, focussed intensity”. And I’ll further quote his specific comments about the song featured in this video:
“[T]he first half (or thereabouts) of ‘Engineer their Consent‘ finds the band slowing things down a little while also upping the melody levels a fair bit, allowing the fabulous fretwork of Miles Morrison (guitar/vocals) and Spencer Atkinson (bass/vocals) room to wander and explore, before the second half of the track picks things up once more, in suitably thrashy, frenetic fashion”.
Messrs’ Morrison and Atkinson do indeed shine on this track, but they’re certainly not the only ones. Drummer Zan Petrovic, who’s the star of this video, shines as well, especially when the song kicks into overdrive near the mid-point, proving that he’s as inventive and technically razor-sharp as his bandmates.
Green & Black is available digitally on Bandcamp, and it’s available on CD (along with other Riftwalker merch) at the band’s Big Cartel page.
Bandcamp:
https://riftwalker.bandcamp.com/
CD’s and Merch:
http://riftwalker.bigcartel.com/
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/Riftwalk3r/