Album review: Polaris – Fatalism

By DAN SOUTHALL

POLARIS have been rising through the ranks of the Australian metal scene for some time now. Unfortunately this album, their third, has been pulled into hyper focus with the passing of their lead guitarist Ryan Siew not long after the release and subsequent tour were announced. His loss after such a powerful statement will be felt by many fans during their first – and maybe during several – listens of Fatalism. Polaris are a band that try and find light in the darkness of their music and emotion and this album is the pinnacle of everything between them up until this point.

The album opens with a statement of intent, the slow burn intro of “Harbinger” easing the listener into the band’s whirlpool of emotions before launching into the heavy on “Nightmare”. A very stock standard scream/sing dynamic recurs throughout. “Overflow” comes with all the feels and a refrain of ‘Where do I shelter when it’s raining inside?’, covering very familiar modern metal tropes. This isn’t a bad thing, as a track like this will elevate the band into the stratosphere internationally with the right kind of support.

Following straight from that is “With Regards”, a particularly striking track when Polaris’ own loss is taken into consideration. With biting, almost mournful lyrics such as ‘Far away, I pray this letter finds you well and safe. I hope to God I wrote it not too late’, it follows a mate trying to save another mate from themselves with assumed tragic consequences, making this track heavy in more than one way.

Fatalism begins to get shaky from here, as it falls into more common metalcore tropes, particularly the balladesque nature of “Aftertouch” and “Fault Line”, that both meander and waffle on towards obscurity. This leaves “All In Vain” to clean up with an album closer for the ages, coming in with synth-like guitar before a drum fill that you know will kick off any pit anywhere. Despite the negative inward looking nature of so much of this album, it finishes on a very heavy, very positive note.

Sadly, this album will possibly be remembered as much for the tragedy of Siew’s passing as much as for the quality of the music on so much of it. Sure, there are some recycled metalcore ideas but Polaris are heading for big things off the back of it. And the world needs more great Aussie metal on the big stage.