{"id":605623,"date":"2026-05-26T23:18:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T23:18:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/605623\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T23:18:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T23:18:12","slug":"atavistia-old-gods-awaken-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/605623\/","title":{"rendered":"Atavistia – Old Gods Awaken Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Melodic death metal had a banner year in 2025, brandishing outstanding releases from Aephanemer<\/a>, Vittra<\/a>, Buried Realm<\/a>, Aversed<\/a>, and others. Given that many of melodeth\u2019s top tier releases came out in the back half of last year, there\u2019s no cause for alarm yet, but with the exception of At the Gates\u2019 opus The Ghost of a Future Dead<\/a>, I can\u2019t help feeling 2026 is off to a slow start. Throwing down the gauntlet with Old Gods Awaken, Vancouver collective Atavistia stakes their claim on this year\u2019s melodeath throne. In his review of Cosmic Warfare<\/a>, Doom_et_al noted that Atavistia made meaningful strides in songwriting since The Winter Way<\/a>, but that plenty of room exists to further define an identity outside of Wintersun<\/a>\u2019s shadow. With the spotlight shining on folk metal influences throughout Old Gods Awaken, can Atavistia maintain their velocity after Cosmic Warfare, or would it have been better to let sleeping gods lie?<\/p>\n

For anyone who\u2019s read about Atavistia at AMG before, you know there\u2019s one band whose temple even these Old Gods pray at. If you expected that to change, shame on you. With their most flagrant foray into folk metal to date, Atavistia doubles down on Wintersun worship with Old Gods Awaken while succumbing to a feverish case of Ensiferum<\/a>ania. On the surface, this may sound like Atavistia regressing back towards The Winter Way, but instead the band continues to refine the overwrought compositions that Doomy dinged in that review and delivers a succinct forty-three minutes of symphonic melodeath. And though Wintersun and Ensiferum cast the longest shadows, shades of Children of Bodom<\/a> and Kalmah<\/a> broaden Old Gods Awaken\u2019s footprint and enrich its well of influences.<\/p>\n

\ufeffOld Gods Awaken by Atavistia<\/a><\/p>\n

Despite Atavistia\u2019s new musical folk-us and turning over half the band since Cosmic Warfare, they submit well-conceived orchestrations and tight performances throughout Old Gods Awaken. Specifically, Atavistia bade farewell to guitarist Dalton Meaden and bassist D\u2019wayne Murray in 2024, welcoming Elia Baghbaniyan and Spencer Budworth in their stead. The quality of instrumentation remains consistent with previous albums, where guitars and synths steal the show as they trade earwormy melodic lines (\u201cMystic Tavern,\u201d \u201cI Skogens Djup\u201d) that lead into heartfelt solos (\u201cGoddess of My Dreams,\u201d \u201cRide the White Storm\u201d) and stirring, rustic breaks (\u201cTo a New World\u201d). The haunting choirs on Cosmic Warfare have also been replaced by viking gang chants, which makes sense stylistically, but loses some of the flair that helped the former stand out. Longtime drummer Max Sepulveda lays down a commendable performance as well, spicing songs up with well-crafted fills that never overpower Old Gods Awaken\u2019s dense compositions. Besides contributing guitar and supplying his best vocal performance to date, Atavistia ringleader Matt Sippola weaves together a rousing album that stands beside its inspirations.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

While Atavistia successfully plunges headlong into folk, the move erodes some of the identity they established previously. Tracks on Cosmic Warfare recalled Wintersun, but just as much reminded me of Brymir<\/a> and the choral arrangements in The Phantom Menace. Old Gods Awaken forsakes these subtle nods, and though that isn\u2019t bad on its own, the Ensiferum influence is a safer path that deteriorates some of Atavistia\u2019s idiosyncrasies. Additionally, some of the melodies and song structures on Old Gods Awaken blur together. \u201cMystic Tavern,\u201d \u201cSeeker of Time,\u201d and \u201cGoddess of My Dreams\u201d all have similar-sounding leads, and the first two also have somewhat predictable compositions that stand out since the songs are back-to-back, particularly in terms of pacing and the timing of more subdued moments. Ultimately, these are minor complaints on very well-executed material, but diversifying the song structures could unveil even greater heights.<\/p>\n

Old Gods Awaken subverts my expectations of what I thought a new Atavistia record would sound like, and even though they lean into a well-defined arena, they do so capably. Monster hooks and intricate, engaging arrangements keep the replay value of Old Gods Awaken tantalizingly high, especially with tight songwriting across the album. I\u2019m curious where Atavistia goes next, as there\u2019s no clear indication of what direction they\u2019ll take. Whatever it is, the persistent urge to evolve their songcraft proves Atavistia will make it interesting and fun, and that every once in a while, you can teach Old Gods new tricks.<\/p>\n

Rating: Very Good
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Self-Release
Websites: Website<\/a> | Bandcamp<\/a> | Facebook<\/a>
Releases Worldwide: May 15th, 2026<\/p>\n

\n\tGive in to Your Anger:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Melodic death metal had a banner year in 2025, brandishing outstanding releases from Aephanemer, Vittra, Buried Realm, Aversed,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":605624,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[47816,19439,114811,187184,206459,114812,28214,114813,22737,73639,127850,96,22739,73642,191545,40988,128,206460,263,129,13420,43330,30469,56,54,55,51313,114820,127856],"class_list":["post-605623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-47816","tag-3-5","tag-aephanemer","tag-at-the-gates","tag-atavistia","tag-aversed","tag-black-metal","tag-buried-realm","tag-canadian-metal","tag-children-of-bodom","tag-ensiferum","tag-entertainment","tag-folk-metal","tag-kalmah","tag-may26","tag-melodic-death-metal","tag-music","tag-old-gods-awaken","tag-review","tag-reviews","tag-self-release","tag-self-released","tag-self-releases","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-viking-metal","tag-vittra","tag-wintersun"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=605623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605623\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/605624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=605623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=605623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=605623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}