Band: Changeling | Album: Changeling | Genre: Progressive death metal | Year: 2025
From: Berlin, Germany | Label: Season of Mist
For fans of: Opeth, Death, Cynic, Between the Buried and Me
Changeling is a quartet made up of people with deep experience in the death metal world. Bandleader Tom Geldschläger has played with Obscura and Belphegor, among others, and the other three members have ties to acts such as Fear Factory, Virvum, and Dark Fortress. Backing up this supergroup is a slew of guest musicians, including a choir and small orchestra.
Changeling opens with the instrumental “Introject”. The prominent fretless bass and rapid arpeggi in the background immediately call to mind classic prog-death acts like Cynic or early Opeth.
“Instant Results” explodes with demonic growls and powerful instrumentals. Bass can often get buried in death metal, so the fact that it is mixed so prominently on this record is a great contrast. The rhythm and meter on this cut are constantly shifting, keeping the listener guessing. And the band is able to effortlessly shift between harsh dissonance and warm, jazzy, and melodic passages. This breakneck intensity continues on “Falling in Circles.” The drumming, in particular, stands out here. It’s got the oomph that death metal drumming needs, but it’s also deft and nimble.
“World? What World?” channels Opeth’s best moments in its opening, but Changeling has a character all their own. The verses feature suffocating blackened tones, and the chorus has a vaguely Middle Eastern tinge to it. The orchestra adds a lot of depth here, though its deployment is subtle.
After the brief, piano-led “Metanoia Interlude” comes the album’s title track. This might be the most pummeling passage on the record yet. The guitars come crashing down like a landslide, and the drums thunder powerfully. The main riff draws from doom metal with its deliberate pace. Everyone gets plenty of flourishes between passages, and I really like the deployment of clean backing vocals. I’m a sucker for complex vocal arrangements, and that’s relatively rare in death metal. There’s also a really cool, gurgling synth solo that comes out of nowhere. It’s brief, but it does a great job at catching your attention and adding dimensionality to this song. More Middle Eastern elements come into play during a stripped-back section. Hand percussion and an oud transport you to some obscure, sandy locale before death metal comes screaming back in to return you to this band’s usual stomping grounds.
“Abyss” takes things down several notches in its opening moments. After a gentle intro, though, guitars befitting this song’s title come in with extreme gravity. The influence of funeral doom is noticeable here, especially the nautically-themed Ahab. The drumming maintains some death metal propulsiveness, though, allowing this immensely weighty composition to push forward insistently. There are some interesting asides mixed in, too, including passages led by bass and tabla. As “Abyss” progresses, there’s a sense that something is trying to surface. The pace picks up and some stabs of keyboards bring some buoyancy.
The “Cathexis Interlude” gives one last pit of respite before this album ends on its two longest songs.
“Abdication” has a sprightly opening, brimming with piano, xylophone, and orchestral elements. After the nearly-neverending onslaught of the album up to this point, this rather airy music is a welcome change of pace. Hints of shadows creep up, though: minor chords appear, and the vocals become coarser. When the band returns to metal, the riffs are the usual tangle of jazz-inflected, odd-metered madness. It’s impressive how the band manages to keep upping the ante as this song progresses. Tight, twisting guitar lines, grand choral and orchestral inclusions, and clever uses of vocal effects make for an enthralling listening experience.
The album closes with the 17-minute epic, “Anathema”. The opening channels film noir with its narration and brassy musical backing, but stuttering death metal soon returns to dominate the soundscape.
Changeling frequently alternates their heavier moments with clean passages. The metallic moments remain rather melodic overall. Some obvious nods to Cynic are made through the use of synthesized vocals and some bass-forward moments of jazz-rock. Middle Eastern elements show up occasionally, too. The orchestra plays a major role in this song’s midsection, adding levity during more stripped-back passages.
Heading into this song’s climax, the band pulls out all the stops. It’s a massive tsunami of guitars, keys, orchestra, and vocals.
Changeling’s debut is a striking and impressive piece. The album manages to expertly balance crushing and technical death metal passages alongside lighter elements of jazz and world music. This album exceeds the pedigrees of the band members, and I’m excited to see what they can do in the future!
Score: 93/100
The Elite Extremophile 