Northlane - Mirror's Edge EP
Northlane
Mirror’s Edge EP
Release Date: April 12th, 2024
Label: Independent
Review by Jared Stossel
Northlane is a band that has only gotten better with time. They’re one of the few bands that use the metalcore moniker which I’ve seen incorporate electronic dance music elements into their songs in a way that feels natural, whereas it feels forced amongst some of their peers in the industry. Their last two albums, 2020’s Alien and 2022’s Obsidian, rank among some of the finest work in their catalog, but internal strife had apparently been bogging them down. The five-piece Australian act retreated to Victoria’s Yarra Valley to write, and the result of those sessions is the Mirror’s Edge EP, a six-song entry in the band’s songbook that acts as a creative checkpoint for the band. Upon first listening, I wasn’t digging it. It was only until sitting with it that the songs really started to hit home for me, and it’s a solid twenty-minute representation of everything that the band has accomplished thus far in their career.
You can think of Mirror’s Edge as an intermediary between albums - a chance for the band to stop, take stock of what they’ve done over nearly fifteen years of work amidst multiple lineup changes, and show off the styles and musicianship they’ve fostered ever since. With songs that could both create a gargantuan “wall of death” at even the toughest of metal shows and find themselves at home amongst the BassPod stage of a festival like EDC Las Vegas at four in the morning, Northlane has created some fine work.
The EP’s title track is more of an introduction track than anything, leading into two heavy-hitting songs (“Afterimage”, “Miasma”), the former featuring Karnivool’s Ian Kenny, while the latter features an eardrum-shattering guest spot from Parkway Drive’s Winston McCall. Fuzzy, bit-crushed guitars and drums signal the opening of “Let Me Disappear”, crescendoing into a fierce vocal breakdown. “Kraft” finds the band exploring darker dance-music-infused territory that’s become familiar on their recent albums, along with a guest spot from former bassist (now current bassist of Structures) Brendon Padjasek. The EP’s closer, “Dante”, is a sweeping conclusion that features lead vocalist Marcus Bridge producing some of his finest vocal works in the choruses.
If the Mirror’s Edge EP was needed to help the band work through tension, whether that be writer’s block, internal conflicts, or anything else that really isn’t our business, then it’s undoubtedly clear that any album they have coming down the pipeline in the next few years will be their best work yet.
