While this year continues to be another great year for new heavy music, the Massachusetts scene has once again stood tall with The Acacia Strain dropping their latest, Gravebloom (Rise). The Chicopee, MA group continues to produce stellar albums and still aiming to beat out their previous successes. TAC keeps true to the sound that they are best known for, while also experimenting just a bit more than previously. There may not be a twenty-minute long epic that takes up a second disk, but the eleven tracks that span nearly fifty minutes is just right.

‘Plague Doctor’ is one of my favorite tracks on the album and certainly sounds like The Acacia Strain I have loved for years now. Aggressive guitar riffs, thunderous drumming, and a breakdown that is sure to break necks is the framework of the song while the antagonistic lyrics help paint the whole picture. The last two tracks, which are also the longest on Gravebloom, really go for the knockout combination to wrap up the album. ‘Walled City’ starts off hot and heavy that really puts these guys apart from the Deathcore scene that many placed them in early on in their career.

Suddenly at the halfway mark, the song becomes a sludge song as the tempo drops without warning and drags you through the mud. This same tempo and personality slowly leaks into the closing track, ‘Cold Gloom’. Gloom is the perfect name for this song as it absolutely dismantles any happiness inside of you left from the previous tracks.

The Acacia Strain is another band from MA/New England area that the local scene can be proud of. While the close-minded will continue categorizing TAC as ‘just another deathcore band’, the rest of us will sit back and enjoy Gravebloom, as we have enjoyed really their whole discography up to this point. Having said that, I feel like even after many shuffles in the lineup over the years, this current lineup is their best and this album proves it.

8.5/10

TIM LEDIN