If you’re not a fan of Tribal Gaze’s previous album, The Nine Choirs, you should be. If you still aren’t after checking out, then I’m not your buddy, friend! The good news is that the new one, Inveighing Brilliance, travels the same path. If you’re unfamiliar, they peddle the same old school death metal revival wares, not unlike Sanguisugabogg (or as I call them, Sandwichinabag). I had gotten slightly worried about this revival until the feast for my ears of their new album, as well as Inveighing Brilliance.

Firstly, Tribal Gaze has no intention of reinventing the genre we all know and love, but they certainly inject a little more hardcore into their songwriting, two steps be damned. Tell me you can listen to the beginning of “Beyond Recognition” and not think hardcore, or perhaps metalcore, but let’s not push it too far. A lot of that influence comes directly from the drum patterns, which are at times minimal and sometimes blast beats. The cavernous death metal vocals remind you that death metal is at the forefront, though.

“Guarding the Illusion,” only a couple of tracks later, starts with a muddy, swamp-trudging, filthy riff. The bludgeoning mostly continues through the track. Around the minute-and-a-half mark, a hardcore stomp begins, and the guitars sound huge. With around a minute left, it’s guitar feedback until a furious, ass-shaking, headbanging riff comes in, but is taken over by a solo to end the song.

It’s around this time that I should tell you most of the album proceeds in familiar territory, but you probably already knew that. However, I will point out the opener, “Smiling from Their Chariots,” since it is hefty, short, and only has lyrics for half of its two minutes. It’s bouncy in the way that it may elicit subtle shoulder shaking. I implore you to say that several times fast. Or don’t, kid. It’s your life.

The closer is quite the track, called “Lord of Blasphemy.” It’s not notable so much for its different approach overall, because if you look closely, it’s basically the same, except slightly drawn out. The riff is still a dick swinger, and it still has that trademark of their tracks, which I can only describe as being a metalcore bounce. The ending of it is bizarre to me, though. It’s a drum solo for the last three minutes. I’m not one to complain about a drum solo by any means, but to end the album, it seems anticlimactic.

If you feel the same way as I regarding the drum solo, just skip it because this is a certified banger. It just happens to be that it seems like there are a ton of good albums coming out around year-end list season. It’s that way every year, so it’s not surprising. Just like its predecessor, Inveighing Brilliance is a welcome addition, and it will remain in my rotation for quite some time.

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