"While their fellow countrymen in Parkway Drive have taken their sound in a more expansive, stadium-sized direction in recent years, Australia's Northlane have taken a more progressive path. Still, up until their last album, 2017's Mesmer, they remained blatantly a metalcore band at heart, holding on to everything that rooted them in that scene, with electronic and prog flourishes livening up their sound. On the self-produced Alien, this is no longer strictly the case, since they have embraced electronic music with an undeniable verve, making it a core element rather than embellishment, and in doing so delivered a record that defiantly stands apart from the movement that spawned them, and indeed their own past. It's an ambitious, dark and haunting collection, and likely to polarise any fans who may not be ready for such an evolution".