Suffield, Connecticut melodic death metal act Archaic Decapitator first appeared on my radar towards the end of 2014 when I learned of the band and helped them premiere a song off of their soon-to-be-released 2015 EP, The Catherine Wheel. Countless spins of that release really impressed me enough to put it on my year-end list for 2015.

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Now only a year later, the band is back with another excellent 5 song EP called Light of a Different Sun. Which will officially be self-released by the band next Tuesday, June 7th. As good as The Catherine Wheel was, the band have somehow found a way to take things to an even higher level throughout the five new songs streaming early below. All the while, the band underwent a somewhat big line-up shift after The Catherine Wheel, dropping from a five piece band to a trio, rounded out by session drums from death metal drum god Kevin Talley on the new release!

With change comes new possibilities, and Light of a Different Sun at times feels like quite a different Archaic Decapitator than the band has sounded in the past. Part of that is the excellent songwriting throughout these five songs, and the other part definitely has to do with the band delivering a more proggy, complex, and epic experience this time around. Light of a Different Sun is multi-faceted melodic death metal that definitely stands out from the more genre-by-numbers melodic death that's dime-a-dozen and bland. In choosing to go with a five song EP format this time just like last year, Archaic Decapitator have found a winning formula for delivering quality death metal that never dips in quality. If you like what you hear below, Light of a Different Sun can be pre-ordered in physical and digital formats over at their Bandcamp page. Be sure to follow them on their Facebook page as well!