France's Fox Paradox should really be called "genre paradox," because this quintet, in just about thirty-six minutes, supposedly combines death, thrash, prog, groove, and deathcore in their first independent album, "Echoes Of The Hunt." Sure, these guys are progressive, but any band is "progressive" if they smush a handful of styles together and call it a day. When I picture a pizza, I envision a couple of different toppings and a nice, consistent dough. Hopefully, this LP is like a pizza: a couple of different genre toppings, but a consistent underlying theme (dough). I'm very hungry, if you couldn't tell.

"Limerance" opens with the electronic subtleties and vocal gymnastics of deathcore, and it's solid deathcore, too. Deep gutturals, ear-piercing squeals, and crazy technical solos are together plentiful in the opener. I can get behind Fox Paradox's deathcore, as well as their more straightforward progressive death metal attempts in "Qualia." The endless guitar-ing and complicated drumming dances betwixt clean and harsh vocals, all in just four minutes. "Echoes" is a groovy show-and-tell of whatever weird time signature(s) the band invented. The returning cleans are pleasant, and the "BLEGHs" of the past are fun, even if they are a tad cringe. "Europhia" djents all over the place, and has zero intent of cleaning up after. The acoustic guitar passage is an effort, but the band only accelerates from it. This half of the album is strong, tasty progressive metal. Nothing more, and absolutely nothing less.

If Opeth lost some dignity and adopted some deathcore-y vibes, "Earth Weeps" would be the product. Everything Fox Paradox did in four minutes is extended to a seven-minute wonderland of riffage and brutality. Blast-beats, atmosphere, metallic shredding, and everything lovely are included. "Cipher" is just a continuation of the last track. The Mariana Trench vocals are held for stank-face amounts of time, further proving the vocalist's talent. "Solace" is a song coming off their 2024 demo "Euphoria," with another familiarly-named track. It, along with the closing piece "Hunter," hold their own in the sea of greatness that is the album "Echoes of the Hunt." 

Fox Paradox came out of nowhere and shot out this banger of an LP. I went in skeptical of how many genres were in this album, as their Bandcamp bio spouts out a ton. I'm blown away by the band's brutal yet refined playing, and I only want more. "Echoes of the Hunt" is a great, harsh progressive metal pizza. See? I kept the pizza gag running.