Old Gods Awaken
When the past meets the feast of war
Atavistia was born in 2016 as a one-man project conceived by Matt Sippola, and eventually grew into a full band within the Vancouver scene. Along the way, the group refined an identity anchored in melodic death metal, but always with its eyes turned toward the epic, folkloric, and symphonic side of the genre. Listening to Old Gods Awaken, I feel exactly that: this is not a band trying to sound bigger than it is, but rather a group that finally seems to have assembled all the pieces of its own personality into a sharper and more ambitious portrait.
A more direct album, yet still grandiose
What draws my attention the most on this album is the way it sounds leaner and more objective without losing its grandeur. Instead of stretching itself too far, Old Gods Awaken works better with the contrast between shorter tracks (with the exception of the title track) and more expansive moments, which gives the album a natural sense of breathing room and avoids that feeling of an endless sonic wall. I hear here an album strongly guided by riffs, but also highly attentive to dynamics: it advances with energy, retreats when necessary, and returns with its chest open, like an army marching down a road covered in snow and ashes.
Fire, wood, and steel within the same song
In practice, the album sounds to me like a successful meeting point between aggression and melodic identity. The guitars command everything with great firmness, the blasts hit hard, the choruses carry the weight of battle chants, and the vocals alternate between harshness and clarity without losing their sense of unity. The record also embraces folk elements and a Finnish-scene-inspired atmosphere with greater confidence, especially in the way melodies and keyboards broaden the horizon of the songs. To me, the result is a work that does not remain trapped within traditional extreme metal, it opens gates, raises banners, and still leaves the dust of combat lingering in the air.
The balance between excitement and menace
What I value most in Old Gods Awaken is that it does not fall into the trap of being merely festive or merely brutal. There are moments when the album sounds luminous, almost celebratory, and others when the same band seems to pull the music into a darker and more unsettling shadow, with heavier, tenser, and more dramatic passages. This alternation keeps me engaged because it gives life to the entire album, it does not settle for repeating the same battle formula from beginning to end. Even when it becomes softer, the sense of movement remains there, as if the calm were merely the interval before the next assault.
A turning point that feels natural
I especially like the impression that the band is not simply 'trying something new', but refining a direction that had already been taking shape. The album sounds like a coherent expansion of what Atavistia had already been building, more folk, more collective impact within the compositions, more focus on making each track memorable without sacrificing technique. To me, this makes Old Gods Awaken feel less like a detour and more like a statement of maturity. It is an album that knows exactly where it wants to strike and where it wants to sound expansive, and that confidence appears in every arrangement shift.
Verdict
In the end, I leave the listening experience with the feeling that I have heard an album that does not ask for permission to exist. Old Gods Awaken feels strong, cohesive, and very well resolved within its proposal, with striking melodies, a solid sense of epic scale, and songwriting that keeps the flame alive from beginning to end. It is a work that sounds like ancient embers reignited by cold winds, familiar in essence, but far more alive in form. And, to me, that is exactly the kind of album that allows a band to grow without losing its own face.
