Polaris has had such a tragic and troubled journey with this album cycle leading up to the release, with the unfortunate passing of their long-time bandmate and guitarist Ryan Siew. An album that was made with a lot of the rage and anger coming off of the past few tumultuous years, had suddenly become even more personal and emotional than it was ever meant to be. Polaris has always been a band unafraid to express the grittier emotions of life and write about the darker aspects of human condition, but this album ended up being a vessel for both their rage at the state of the world, as well as a lot of personal struggles and emotions.
Fatalism's album cycle started off strong with Inhumane, a very strong and heavy banger that holds true to their sound. After Ryan's passing, the band decided to continue with the album cycle as planned to honour his memory, and everything from then on felt so much more emotional. Nightmare and Overflow were both songs that, on their own, already were on the more emotional side, but now they felt so heartbreaking. Ryan's guitarwork has always been a pillar of Polaris but now, knowing these are likely his last songs, it has a heavy weight to it.
Fatalism as a whole sees Polaris possibly on par with their previous release, never losing their identity but definitely seeing some fresh additions to the sound. The most noticeable difference is the stronger influence of hardcore. They've never been strangers to the parent genre of metalcore, but Fatalism sees a lot more of these simpler and more guttural sections, like in Parasite or Dissipate. At the same time, we see a more melodic side of their vocals, a lot of tracks featuring clean vocals and pop sensibilities new to them. It does however also see a little dip in creativity, myself having found a lot of their songs a less memorable, whether it is the chorus that's less catchy or the guitar riffs being less interesting.
Credit where it is due though, it has its fair share of good moments and fun songs. Inhumane is an energetic banger that gets me on my feet, Dissipate sounds like Polaris' take on the Currents sound (in a great way), Overflow and Nightmare have some great choruses, Parasite is a hardcore-adjacent ragefest, and there's still a lot of tasty breakdowns to enjoy, like Harbinger and Aftertouch.
I'm honestly conflicted about how to feel about this album, because it may very well be that Ryan's passing has affected how I think I should feel about it. Fatalism is far from a miss but I'm hesitant to call it their new best, and I just feel it wouldn't be right to pretend it was groundbreaking just to honour his memory. Fatalism was a grounded album, it saw the band continue to write in the way they knew how to, to confront new topics and situations they never did before. They still excelled in capturing that intensity that they were known for, and even if there wasn't an impressive amount of new and creative songwriting, it was undoubtedly them. And despite tragedy, they decided to celebrate his life instead of just mourning it, and let his music play the way he would've wanted it to play, let the people enjoy it the way he would've wanted them to enjoy it. And for him, we shall.
Rating: 8/10