A Single Point of Light

After the well-received The Reaper's Spiral, Terminus stopped playing shows and dwindled to two members. Multi-instrumentalist David Gillespie is now responsible for everything except the vocals. The smaller roster hasn't done anything to the sound; it only makes A Single Point of Light even more impressive than its predecessor. A lot of listeners have compared the Terminus sound to Visigoth's -- a fairly accurate comparison. The mammoth epic riffing and Manilla Road worship is plain to see from the start, though the science-fiction homages in the lyrics take a more serious bent than the sometimes-bordering-on-silly subject matter of their American cousins. Vocalist James Beattie has to be heard to be believed; his clean vocals with a slight hint of grit at the edge of his delivery fill every available corner of the mix and match up perfectly with Gillespie's crushing riffs. The detail Gillespie has taken here is painstaking, considering that he was the drummer prior to this album. His drumming provides plenty of epic atmosphere, but the guitar work he has on display, both in the rhythm and lead departments, fully makes up for his former bandmates' absence. The mix is modern, but the song styles are of the old school: Chugging marches, NWOBHM-style galloping tunes, and a ten-minute finale at the end make this one an easy fit for Cruz del Sur, which picked the band up for this album. If you didn't like the variety available on The Reaper's Spiral, you probably won't be too happy with what can be found here as well. Given the type of metal the band is offering, this strikes me as somewhat of an unfair criticism, but perhaps not everyone is willing to listen to an unrelentingly epic and doomy sound for this long. Those who are -- and anyone who has gotten into the modern epic revival that's been going on in the States -- are likely to love A Single Point of Light, too. Bandcamp: https://terminusni.bandcamp.com/.