It has been already five years since the second album Memonto Mori’ of the L.A. based alternative metal band Gemini Syndrome saw the light. Now the boys are back with the long-awaited final chapter of their trilogy of albums, 3^rd Degree – The Raising. While the first two told both the story of the painful struggles of life and death, the final installment is about death and rebirth.

Gemini Syndrome has always been something special in the the alternative metal scene. A scene where it is not easy to stand out. Aaron Nordstrom is not only a Santa Claus in disguise, he has quite a powerful, warm and unique voice and in a previous life he touched the guitar strings with Otep. With the addition of Coal Chamber’s Meegs Rascon I was wondering if they could reach the same highs as on their debut album Lux. The follow-up Memento Mori was a nice record but the songs missed the same x-factor that was all over the debut album.

3rd Degree – The Raising starts of with three songs that were already exposed as singles. The techno inspired metal song Reintegration gives us directly the hunger for more. The second one IDK has an extremely memorable chorus where you can also hear on this song how Reegs has added his own stuff with here and there some nice sounding guitar fills. Die With Me is the last single that was released but doesn’t disappoint and has even a little homage to the early days of the band with the lyric “is this the pleasure or the pain?” Groovy music can be found in Baptized in Fire where the guitars stand out accompanied with some haunting soundscapes .

Abandoned is a song that consist of numerous tempo swaps and sequences that keeps the dynamics in this song at a high level. This is somewhat the heaviest version you’ll ever heard of Gemini Syndrome, with an ending that has some even Slipknot influences. Best of Me is the opposite, a more rock ballad with some acoustic guitars. Absolution is another breaker with memorable vocal lines and is one of the more commercially oriented songs on this record. Hold The Line takes you on a trip with a simple yet effective melody. Before ending this 50 minute release, they surprise us with some metalcore moments in where we started from. The disc ends with the ambient Flat lux, not really a song but more a closer track that if you put the disc on the repeat it will take you flawlessly to the beginning of it.

This is a lot better than their previous effort but still couldn’t touch their debut album, although generally speaking they are still delivering music that overgrows the big puddle of same sounding metal bands these days. It’s a pity that in their league they are fighting more commercially interesting bands that get more airplay and recognition, while Gemini Syndrome should be one of the sub bigger bands in the genre. If you’re into discovering more unknown bands you’ll have to check this band out. They are worth it.

Release Date : 15th October 2021
Label: Century Media Records
Tracklist:

1. Reintegration
2. IDK
3. Die With Me
4. Baptised in Fire
5. Children of the Sun
6. Abandoned
7. Broken Reflection
8. Sum Quod Eris
9. Best Of Me
10. Absolution
11. Hold The Line
12. Where We Started From
13. Flat Lux