Possessed is the new release from Atena and it’s an exciting return for the band, who have crafted another stunning listen.
The album is a little different from the previous release Shades Of Black Won’t Bring Her Back, as there’s a more electronic and melodic approach on a few occasions, but this is good because it shows growth from the band. It highlights the fact they are unafraid of experimenting with a few different approaches to ensure they don’t just rehash their previous releases, and makes it a more memorable and engaging piece as a result. (Aside from the rapping in Death Eating which sounds a little out of place in the bigger scheme of things!)
An especially great example of this is one of the later tracks, Oil Rig. It has a tremendous amount of intensity (something that really worked well for them in the past) paired up with some wonderfully meaty instrumentation and some excellent powerful harsh vocals, but the interjections of electronic lines and smooth clean vocals give the song a new spin, and that’s before mentioning the choral-like synth introduction to the song which really grabs your attention!
When it comes to creating gripping music, Atena have got it absolutely nailed and Possessed is another fantastic bit of work from this talented band. Now when are they coming back to the UK…?!
9/10
