A unique and powerful live band, Western Australia’s Tempest Rising hit the road as often as they can. Since 2012 they have toured anywhere and everywhere – from gleaming capital cities to dusty outback towns – forging themselves as one of the most distinctive and engaging metal bands in the country. Kicking off 2019 with a bang, they have emerged from the studio with a ferocious new album, also having just returned from their first European tour. Following on from 2014’s Transmutation, Alter Ego finds Tempest Rising heavier, groovier and more musically ambitious than ever.
Shifting from soaring melody to sheer brutality in a heartbeat, Alter Ego displays a jaw-dropping fluency in heavy music. A vortex of drums, bass, guitar and vocals, each track is a blistering showcase of the band’s talented line-up of seasoned, accomplished musicians: Vin Trikeriotis (vocals), James Ward-Armstrong (guitar), Daniel James (guitar), Jarrad Cracknell (bass) and Matty James (drums). Together, Tempest Rising flawlessly tread the tightrope between heaviness and technicality, drawing from the history of metal while carving out the shape of things to come.
Engineered and mixed by Chaos Divine’s Simon Mitchell, Alter Ego is an absolute pinnacle of songwriting, performance and production. A perfect case in point, the album’s first taster Breathe and new single Ghosts is everything at once: complexly rich in crushing power and virtuosity, yet somehow immovably simple and uplifting.
More than anything else though, Tempest Rising are a live band. Honest and unpretentious, they are the kind of people who are found sharing a beer and a laugh with fans after every show. In any country, in any language, metal evokes the most passionate, loyal followers, and Tempest Rising want to meet them all. With the release of Alter Ego Tempest Rising have entered an exciting new chapter of their story that will cement them as one of the best emerging heavy bands around.
