Arkive Release New Single, 'Acquiescence'

Arkive, one of our previous 2016 Aussie Feature stars have today hit out with a brand new single - 'Acquiescence'.

Back in October of 2016, Melbourne's Arkive released their 'Everstorm' single; a solid effort and one that was a big step up from their rough-around-the-edges 2014 EP.

Today, much like that jump in quality from their 2016 single and their first EP, the sextet has again taken another leap forward from their past work with their newest track, 'Acquiescence', which also features a sneaky guest spot from Marcel Gadacz of Dream On, Dreamer.

As seems to be a running musical trend for Arkive, the proggy-metalcore band once more merge lighter shades, melodic layers and soaring clean vocals with furious screaming and sharp, blistering instrumentals (for real, those are some seriously high-gated guitars). However, while they delivered a very similar musical setup on 'Everstorm', the writing and sonics have been further tightened here and the music has all been far more streamlined. Hopefully, this latest single is but a good sign of things to come from their forthcoming EP, 'Sonder', which is due out sometime later this year.

Acquiescence, just in case you were wondering, means the reluctant acceptance of something without protest. This ties into the song's theme of being an exploration of an individual’s own responsibility in the wider universe; that we ourselves are responsible for uncovering the hard answers to our own life’s even harder questions. Well, according to the band, anyway. Likewise, co-vocalist Mitch Burgess said in a statement about this new song's release that, "We are entering a whole new era for us. This new song and EP signals new sounds for us and we were over the moon to get Marcel from Dream On, Dreamer on this song. We are seriously excited about the future of Arkive!"

Me too, buddy, me too.

Both 'Acquiescence' and their 'Sonder' EP were recorded between the band's own bedrooms in the quiet suburbs in and around Melbourne, with the finishing sonic touches applied by Beau McKee of Oakland Studios and Jamie Marinos, which was then all mixed and mastered by the Lance Prenc. (Geez, all they needed now was Ocean Grove's Sam Bassal to have a hand in this singles/EP's production and you'd have a whose-who of engineers working behind-the-scenes).

Stream Arkive's latest jam below!

PC: Daniel Anderson. 

Also, is it just me or does anyone else get a Final Fantasy front cover vibe from this new singles artwork?