Album Review: Allt: Ataraxia
- Sammie Starr
- 1 minute ago
- 3 min read
After the 2024 release of Allt's critically acclaimed debut album, From The New World, which explores themes of societal collapse, survival, and humanity through a fictional post-apocalyptic lens, their second album, Ataraxia, offers a sound that's more dynamic, intense, and authentic.
When Allt broke down the doors with 2024’s release, From The New World, they introduced a sound bound by endless fury sewn together with a lofty sci-fi and apocalyptic atmosphere. Fueled by unnerving, unpropitious soundscapes that blossomed from their first EP, The Seed of Self Destruction, it seems that all the growth from these two releases has unleashed something else entirely. When listening to Ataraxia, the storms of previous releases come to a head. Built with a sense of weary-eyed melodicism enveloped between the familiar aggressive bones of their past, Ataraxia is built on this tension of emotional collapse and regrettable clarity. Throughout, this album feels like bile billowing up through the throat. As you choke back the thick, acidic, viscous liquid, the burning is a painful reminder that the more you try to hold it down, the harder it becomes to contain. In a way, Ataraxia takes that feeling and puts it into musical practice: the more you try to run from yourself, the faster the things you are running from start to catch up to you. From start to finish, what makes this new release so gripping is not only its dynamic use of sonic architecture but also the emotional thesis that bubbles beneath the surface of it all: that peace doesn’t automatically grant you serenity or the absence of pain, but if you possess the courage to face it with unflinching bravery, there is an armor and strength that calluses over you from not being afraid to that truth.
From the beginning, Allt leans into contrasts like it's all second nature. “New Day,” “Omerta,” and “Nevermind” serrated riffs dissolve into weightless ambiance effortlessly. This artfully crafted mix of melodic soundscapes and gravid textures is not just a band wanting to lean into their own vulnerable truths; it's almost like they are using this truth like a weapon and also a compass that is guiding them to open up, but not without a fight. Within these first few tracks, you can feel the band wrestling with this very process: that the tranquility you can grant yourself by admitting the truth isn’t always a gift. Tranquility is earned through discomfort and absolution. This slow dismantling continues throughout the rest of the album, treating this heaviness not as a burden but as weathered terrain they must endure to reach that peace.
“Enemy,” “Ataraxia,” and “Ultraviolence” continue this emotional pilgrimage through the mental debris, mapping out places where rage becomes release in these three tracks and where melancholy becomes this rare burst of irregular energy. But this release is unique in the way it treats this outburst of unfiltered anger. It’s introspective without over-indulging in the feeling, atmospheric without losing its fangs. As each of these tracks blooms to the surface, it feels like a different shade of acceptance, but that acceptance is not a welcome one.
The album comes to its closing moments, “Snowblind,” “High Hopes,” and “Avalon.” The movements in “Snowblind” feel hopeless, yet in that tinge of hopelessness there is a hint of fight still left to keep going; this last-ditch effort becomes evident in “High Hopes” and “Avalon.” The last track is especially significant. When you think of Avalon in Arthurian legends, it's the last place one is taken to heal their wounds in their final battle; maybe for Allt, this is a sign of tiredness. Tired of fighting, and for now it's time to stop fighting and start healing. It’s not because you want to stop fighting, but because there is only so much one can take before they have had enough. This is someone wanting to heal to return to who they need to be most.
Ataraxia is important because it argues that serenity is not passive, and it rarely is; it's radical and unpredictable. Sometimes you have to choose to stay present in your current life, even if it hurts to do so. For these reasons, this album doesn’t just show amazing growth for the band; it also shows a band moving past a difficult time and choosing to voice that pain instead of silencing it.
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