My first taste of Tallah was with the mega-collab song Vanilla Paste, with an impressive roster of guest vocalists alongside Tallah's Justin Bonitz in a six-and-a-half minute song. I remember being super intrigued and hooked on to by this song because it was simply so different, unconventional in so many ways, and within all of that, was really fun to listen to.
It's actually a relatively calm song for Tallah, considering their usual level of energy is beyond intense. There's a lot more cleans and a lot less chaotic instrumentals used in this song, although that doesn't mean they got any softer. Justin definitely hasn't lost any of his charm with his theatrical vocals, only now it's expanded to a particularly hypnotizing clean vocal technique on the chorus.
It's really cool that the guest features got to mix up the style so much on each of their parts. I wasn't familiar with Fire From The Gods or Guerilla Warfare before this (and still am not), but it's evident that they got to put their own touch on their guest sections. Garrett Hood's rap was underlaid with fittingly fast double-kicks and sparse guitarwork to let his flow shine, and AJ Channer threw in a choir-like ballad moment in the midst of his section with Justin doing backing clean vocals to accentuate it. And well, Tom Barber is just being Tom Barber, Tallah happily giving him the heaviest, filthiest breakdown to match his monstrous growls. Those glitches and high-pitched noises, the low-tuned chugs, the slow-down outro, simply brutal.
I'm not going to lie, it feels like a masterpiece of some sort. A moderately long, multi-sectional modern alternative metal track that blends in many different styles of genres, a collaboration of both old and new blood powerhouses, it's honestly amazing that it even happened, much less with such spectacular results. Tallah is definitely in the top few of my current personal favourite bands, and this is one of the many reasons why.
Rating: 4/5