Band:	Koronus
Album:	Sentinel
Style:	Djent, Progressive metal
Release date:	February 2023

01. Dethroned
02. Betrayed
03. The Rift
04. Realm Of Fire
05. Takamagahara
06. Kagutsuchi
07. Mortal Blade
08. The Vessel
09. Enthroned

I can appreciate that, in a post-Covid world, a 72-minute djent-heavy prog metal album from a band whose name sounds a bit similar to ‘Corona’ might not make friends all that easily, but for those prepared to take the plunge, Sentinel offers up plenty of goodies.

Koronus was formed by two members of the metal band Embracing The Enemy shortly after the release of their debut record The Anomaly, with Vishnu Vijayan (bass) and Kyle McGinley (seemingly everything else) recognizing a mutual interest in writing longer, more progressive and story-driven metal. Both remain in Embracing The Enemy (whose other members guest on this record to perform the backing chants on various sounds), but Koronus has now followed up 2020’s debut record Eye Of The Monolith with Sentinel, an epic journey into samurai culture.

As far as Japanese-influenced American prog-metal records are concerned, Sentinel is closer to Trivium’s Shogun than Ibaraki’s Rashomon in terms of how obviously it features Japanese musical influences. The concept is arguably conveyed more in the lyrics than the music, with Koronus narrating a story of a fallen samurai venturing through the underworld on a quest to seek vengeance against his betrayer. Musically, the album is firmly within the realm of progressive metal, but clearly draws heavily from the previous decade’s djent scene; it's always been curious how a style that was borne from a progressive metal band became so heavily tied to offshoots from metalcore, and it is exciting to hear bands such as Koronus who are willing to apply the same techniques to more explorative songwriting.

While the tones, grooves and rhythms of djent are clearly integrated into a lot of the heavier riffing in Sentinel, especially on tracks such as “Realm Of Fire”, there is more to the writing here; there needs to be with an average song length of just under 8 minutes. The Koronus duo are also capable of more conventional prog fare, from instrumental shredding to mellower segues and atmospheric passages; the tension built by the enticing introduction to “Takamagahara” makes it clear that one is walking into proper ‘epic song’ territory. Vocally, there’s a mix of the expected screams and also bold clean singing, which frequently runs close to the sound of Corelia and Karmanjakah, but also retains some of its own personality.

Now, I can imagine if I recommended Sentinel to most of my metal-enjoying acquaintances, quite a few of them would raise issue with the length of both songs and album, to which I would say: fair enough. I feel it’s reasonable for one to argue that, even though most of the lengthier songs have sufficient variation in approach and transitions to keep things feeling somewhat fresh, few of them (with “Takamagahara” the most obvious exception) truly justify their runtime. Sentinel will challenge the patience of quite a lot of people, and I do think a bit of moderation would not have necessarily been to the album’s detriment. Nevertheless, I do have to say that I find it to be a really enjoyable listen overall.

That djenty force that persists throughout Sentinel conjures up some gnarly riffs and grooves; “Dethroned” opens the record up with some ripping riffs, and tasty breakdowns can be encountered in the likes of “The Rift” and “Realm Of Fire”. On top of that, the strength of the clean vocal performance helps counteract both the inherent Corelia déjà vu I find myself feeling and the melodrama that seeps into aspects of the album. Capping this all off, these are on the whole some very decent songs; I have highlighted “Takamagahara” a couple of times already, for good reason (that long introduction, the flute motifs, the expansive feel to multiple vocal passages in it, the cool percussion-driven passage in its second half, and the insatiable grooves), but as much as I think it’s the strongest song here, it does have other tracks offering competition in terms of memorability, from the bright electronics in “Mortal Blade” and the dark folksiness of “Betrayed” through to the similarly wide-ranging ambition of “Enthroned”.

That interest in long, narrative-driven prog-metal that Vijayan and McGinley share is strongly apparent on Sentinel, and while they are perhaps still feeling out the boundaries of excess when writing in this style, they clearly have a knack for taking the punchiness and groove of djent and placing it within a more expansive and grandiose setting.