280 miles north of Edmonton on the highway to Alaska, you’ll find Grande Prairie, Alberta. Snow covers the ground of this small town for nearly seven months out of the year, and bear attacks aren’t uncommon. Arrival of Autumn came to life in this place. The quintet—Jamison Friesen [vocals], Ryan Sorensen [guitar], Brendan Anderson [guitar], Ty Fox [drums], and Liam Frith [bass]—absorb the icy emotion of their surroundings in a hard-hitting hybrid of heavy metal proficiency, metalcore intensity, and skyscraping melodic sensibility. After posting up millions of streams and building a devout fan base, the group channel this energy on their second full-length offering, Kingdom Undone [Nuclear Blast].
Maintaining lifelong bonds, Jamison and Brendan grew up together, while Ty entered the fold in high school. They listened to everyone from Metallica and Dream Theater to Between The Buried And Me, Bullet For My Valentine, and Opeth whose lyrics even inspired the name “Arrival of Autumn.” The guys impacted heavy music with Harbinger in 2019, touring with the likes of In Flames and stirring up buzz in the process. During 2022, they linked up with producer Mark Lewis [Whitechapel, Black Dahlia Murder] to record what would become Kingdom Undone.
The band bulldoze the way for Kingdom Undone with the single “Ghosts.” On the track, a pummeling riff twists and turns around a thick beat as guttural verses give way to a haunting and hypnotic refrain confronting “genocidal hate.”
Incendiary fretwork blazes throughout “Scars.” Maintaining this momentum, the trudging rhythm collides with a hammering hook, “Why don’t you show your scars?”
“One More Day” gallops towards a cathartic chorus with a reminder to keep fighting in the face of adversity. Then, there’s “Bury Me.” On the latter, a searing solo ruptures the guillotine-sharp groove in the space between another chantable crescendo and searing scream. Meanwhile, Kingdom Undone culminates on a final blast of uncontainable emotion.
In the end, Arrival of Autumn arrive with an undeniable vision of their own.
