Across a career defined by seismic shifts, Northlane have stared down technological anxiety, alienation and collapse, channelling it into a highly influential body of work that is as expansive as it is confrontational. With the world in dire straits, it would have been easy for them to descend into the void on album number seven. Instead, they emerged from the studio with their most hopeful and human record yet.
Executive produced by Jordan Fish, the idea for Anemoia was sparked by a mind-altering set from UK producer and DJ Evian Christ, which inspired songwriter/guitarist Jon Deiley to explore how trance – in all its emotional intensity and physical scale – could work naturally with guitars and the catharsis of heavy music. Throughout the album, Northlane’s hallmark electronic metal takes on many forms, shapeshifting through euphoric trance, seismic breakdowns, brain-bending grooves, drum-and-bass, jungle and pop, coalescing into Northlane’s own sonic singularity.
Following on from their #1 album Obsidian (2022), Anemoia toys with the concept of feeling nostalgia for a time or place one has never known. The nostalgic yearning coursing through Anemoia opens up a dichotomy of darkness and light that underpins the record. Buoyed by the sense of freedom in eras past, there’s a light and carefree energy running through tracks like the bright Britpop-tinged “Start Again,” the 2000s cheekiness of “CUT_it”, the kinetic exhilaration of “Evian,” and widescreen interplay between Bridge and guest vocalist Rory Rodriguez (Dayseeker) on the album’s title track.
“There’s darkness here, but it’s not nihilism – and there’s hope, but it’s not naivety,” adds Bridge. “We weren’t interested in writing a record that projects something beyond ourselves with a prophetic statement, or pretending the world is better than it is. What we made instead is something that feels like it was written by real people living through the same experience as everyone else.”
