Allegaeon is an American Death Metal band that was founded in 2008.
Current Members:
- Greg Burgess - lead/rhythm guitar (2008-present)
- Michael Stancel - lead/rhythm guitar (2013-present)
- Brandon "Booboo Money" Michael - bass (2017-present)
- Jeff Saltzman - drums (2021-present)
- Ezra Haynes - vocals (2008-2015, 2023-present)
Discography
- Allegaeon (2008)
- Fragments of Form and Function (2010)
- Formshifter (2012)
- Elements of the Infinite (2014)
- Proponent for Sentience (2016)
- Apoptosis (2019)
- Damnum (2022)
Now, drifted so far into the distance, this ship of Theseus is troping!:
- Ascended Extra: Jeff Saltzman started out as a live fill-in for Continuum, was drafted there as a full-timer after they fired Ron Casey, and was then invited to fill in for Allegaeon after Brandon Park left before the tour was cancelled, and was then made full-time at some point after that.
- Big Guy, Little Guy: Riley was this compared to the rest of the band, as he is of roughly average height, while Greg, Michael, Brandon, and Jeff are all over six feet.
- Cover Version: They have covered "Subdivisions", "Animate", and "Roundabout".
- Darker and Edgier: Damnum. While, musically, things haven't changed much aside from a shift away from more technical songs to more proggy songs, lyrically, it's significantly darker with less science and more death and despair. Songs like "Called Home" are particularly heavy.
- Epic Rocking: "Genocide for Praise - Vals for the Vitruvian Man" (12:48), "Apoptosis" (10:18), "Proponent for Sentience II - The Algorithm" (8:19), "Gray Matter Mechanics - Apassionata ex Machinea" (8:18), "Accelerated Evolution" (8:09), "Called Home" (7:40), "Biomech - Vals No. 666" (7:27), "Behold (God I Am)" (7:18), "Twelve-vals for the Legions" (7:11), "Proponent for Sentience III - The Extermination" (6:59), "Only Loss" (6:53), "Cower Before Me" (6:35), "Of Beasts and Worms" (6:31), "Tsunami and Submergence" (6:26), "Proponent for Sentience I - The Conception" (6:23), "Secrets of the Sequence" (6:23), "The Arbiters" (6:11), "Terrathaw and the Quake" (6:10), "Stellar Tidal Disruption" (6:06), "Threshold of Perception" (6:06)
- Everything Is an Instrument: When Allegaeon plays at the beach
. The drummer "plays" a few buckets and a Frisbee instead of an actual drum set. - Lyrical Dissonance: Inverted. They are notable for their highly science-oriented lyrical themes, and while some songs mention death and allude to violence, many simply refer to mathematics or physics with very little to no lyrical darkness, despite the band's high rating on the metal hardness scale.
- Averted on Damnum. The lyrics take a much darker turn.
- Lead Bassist: Brandon Michael is a Type A, Type B, and borderline Type D as per the band; while Corey Archuleta was a very technically accomplished player himself, he usually took more of a background role outside of the occasional melodic line or fill, while Brandon takes a significantly more active role, and the band has stated that Brandon's more active style played a big role in their stylistic shift. He also does most of the backing vocals live, as well as clean harmonies with Riley on certain tracks.
- Melodic Death Metal: On the heavier end, and one of the most famous melodic tech acts.
- Metal Scream: The song "All Hail Science" opens with a drawn out Type 2. Ezra mostly stuck to something between a Type 1 and a Type 2, while Riley mostly stuck to a Type 2.
- Non-Appearing Title: Mostly subverted. Up until their most recent album, of the 34 songs from their first four releases, 27 of them had Non-Appearing Titles. Often, though, a single keyword from the title would make its way into a song, even if the title wasn't used in its entirety.
- Progressive Metal: Damnum is a turn towards this, with far more of a clean vocal presence (particularly "Called Home", which is almost entirely cleanly sung), as well as more non-standard song structures and major tempo changes, though they had always flirted with this on their longer songs and had made it a bigger part of their sound starting with Proponent for Sentience.
- Religion Rant Song: "Behold (God I Am)" is a Type 3 about religion and religious leaders causing conflict.
- Scary Musician, Harmless Music: Inverted. As evidenced by their incredibly silly music videos and general shenanigans, the band members are quite relatable and fun. They just happen to play death metal.
- Sequel Song: "Biomech - Vals No. 666" was followed up with "Biomech II" two albums later.
- Soprano and Gravel: Riley introduced cleans (though he only used them on "Cognitive Computations" on his debut) and began using them more on Apoptosis, though
Word of God is that they refuse to use them for hooks, and "Proponent for Sentience III - The Extermination" (which Riley didn't even do the chorus for) is and always will be the one exception to their "no big clean choruses" rule because they do not want to be that type of band. - Talky Bookends: Allegaeon's music video for "1.618".
- Take That!: As per Riley, "Vermin" is a shot at their old management company, who were completely useless and did little other than cash the band's checks while dropping the ball at every opportunity.
- Technical Death Metal: Along with Obscura, The Faceless, Revocation, Rivers of Nihil, Beyond Creation, Inferi, and Archspire, they are among the most famous acts in modern tech.
