If you were to even just take a mild glance at the growing landscape of somewhat controlled madness that is progressive death metal, you would immediately notice that the size of the style has been steadily getting larger and larger over the years. Between all the bands coming out of nowhere trying to do something new, it’s sometimes hard to find the time to hear all the sound has to offer. It can also feel like the quality is dipping as the number of bands rises, but it’s when you discover bands like Aal that you realize that may not be as widespread as you may think.

I feel it’s safe to say that many people have this oddly nasty habit of always thinking of the best of the best whenever we think of any given style because that’s what we remember most prominently that sticks in our minds the most, and it’s when we come upon acts just barely starting out like Aal that people are quick to think the style is filling with nothing of note since that’s always a lot of bands. But, it’s something that I’ve done my best to kick over the years, and it’s working, thankfully, and it’s because of that I feel I find myself easily being able to fall into albums like this and discover what jewels they hold in store. In the case of “The Only Path”, it’s a goddamn treasure chest! The first and understandably shaky steps of any band’s first album are prevalent throughout the entirety of “The Only Path”, but there’s real power along with talent that bleeds through every single note to a tremendous extent. It’s throughout these seven tracks that Aal shows us just what exactly their capable of in many different forms the likes of which plenty of other acts would struggle in trying to bring together even half as well as we see here. From a tantalizing display of just how progressive their sound is, melodies that are all but gripping, and an overall exploration of brutality that pulls “The Only Path” together with such glory that I had to make a conscious effort to rip myself away from it in order to type this. It quickly culminates to show us that Aal is not to be trifled with, underestimated, or taken to be a lesser act the likes of which is sadly destined to be skipped over. Instead, Aal intrigues and impresses with “The Only Path”, and it’s the exact sort of thing that has cemented the name of Aal into my brain.

I’ve been through quite a few albums of this particular style lately with tremendous quality thrown around in every single one of them, and it’s here that Aal creates another brilliant example of that with their debut. It’s the exact sort of thing that I’ll be coming back to for quite some time in order to really absorb everything that “The Only Path” has to offer, and I truly do hope that more material follows this effort sooner rather than later.

LISTEN to “The Only Path” on Bandcamp here.

LIKE Aal on Facebook here.